CHAPTER 8.
THE POLICE.
ALTHOUGH the constable is an officer with powers long known to the Local Police
common law and part of the special powers of the modern police Authorities
officer are exercised by him as a constable, the professional police
forces only date from the first half of the nineteenth century.1
The Metropolitan Police, whose jurisdiction extends over a fifteen-
mile radius from Charing Cross is the only police force in the United
Kingdom which is under the direct control of the Home Secretary,
who is the police authority. The executive head is the Commissioner
of Police for the Metropolis, who is appointed by the Crown and is
the disciplinary authority. The Commissioner makes appointments
and has powers of suspension and dismissal. The City of London
Police are an independent force, but the appointment of the Com-
missioner (Chief Officer) must be approved by the Home Secretary.
The Court of Common Council is the police authority.
Elsewhere in England and Wales the Police are organised as
county or county borough forces. The local police authority for a
county is the Standing Joint Committee, so called because its
members are drawn half from the County Council and half from the
Justices of Peace in Quarter Sessions, who had sole responsibility
from 1839 when the county police force was first authorised until
1889 when the County Councils came into existence,2 In a county
borough the authority is the Borough Council acting through the
Watch Committee. The local authority determines the size of its
force and has the powers of appointment and of dismissal; these
powers are in counties exercised by the Chief Constable as disci-
plinary authority; in boroughs they are exercised by the Watch
Committee. The authority pays the salaries and wages of members of
its force, though the scale of payments is fixed on a national basis.
The central administrative control of the Home Secretary is Home
important. The appointment of the chief officer of police (Chief
Constable) by the police authority is subject to the approval of the Forces,
Home Secretary. The Police Act, 1919, s. 4, provides that "it shall
be lawful for the Secretary of State to make regulations as to the
1 For a short account of the histoiy of the police and parish constables, see
Hart. Introduction to the Law of Local Government and Administration (Butter-
worth), 5th edition, Chap. 24. The control exercised by the Home Secretary is
described in The Home Office volume of The New Whitehall Series (George Allen
and Unwin).
2 See County Police Act, 1839; Local Government Act, 1888, s. 9.