Police

A police force is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. Their powers include the legitimized use of force. The term is most commonly associated with police services of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from military or other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing.

Law enforcement, however, constitutes only part of policing activity. Policing has included an array of activities in different situations, but the predominant ones are concerned with the preservation of order. In some societies, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, these developed within the context of maintaining the class system and the protection of private property. Many police forces suffer from police corruption to a greater or lesser degree. The police force is usually a public sector service, meaning they are paid through taxes.

Detroit Police Department

The Detroit Police Department (DPD), established in 1865, is responsible for the city of Detroit, Michigan.

History

As of 2014, the department is composed of twelve precincts. In 1921, the Detroit Police Department became the first police department in the country to utilize radio dispatch in their cars. A historical marker at Belle Isle Park describes the new advancement in technology.

Prior to 1973 female officers were not allowed to work for DPD in the same capacity as men. However, DPD had previously established the Women's Division, launched in 1920, which worked on cases of "child abuse, sexual assaults, juvenile delinquency, and checking establishments for illegal minors."

Fallen officers

The Detroit Police Department has lost eight officers between the years 2000 and 2011. During the 1970s, the department lost 26 officers in a span of ten years. Since 1878, The Detroit Police Department has lost 225 officers in the line of duty. The leading cause of death in the line of duty is gunfire, with a total of 149 officers slain.

Detroit

Detroit (/dᵻˈtrɔɪt/) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the fourth-largest city in the Midwest and the largest city on the United States–Canada border. It is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state. Detroit's metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 5.3 million people, making it the fourteenth-most populous metropolitan area in the United States and the second-largest in the Midwestern United States (behind Chicago). It is a major port on the Detroit River, a strait that connects the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth-largest in the United States.

Detroit is the center of a three-county urban area (population 3,734,090, area of 1,337 square miles (3,460 km²), a 2010 United States Census) six-county metropolitan statistical area (2010 Census population of 4,296,250, area of 3,913 square miles [10,130 km²]), and a nine-county Combined Statistical Area (2010 Census population of 5,218,852, area of 5,814 square miles [15,060 km²]). The Detroit–Windsor area, a commercial link straddling the Canada–U.S. border, has a total population of about 5,700,000. The Detroit metropolitan region holds roughly one-half of Michigan's population.