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.

Norwegian Police Service

The Norwegian Police Service (Norwegian: Politi- og lensmannsetaten) is the Norwegian civilian police agency. It consists of a central National Police Directorate, seven specialty agencies and twenty-seven police districts. The government agency is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and has 13,000 employees, of which 8,000 are police officers. In addition to police powers, the service is responsible for border control, certain civil duties, coordinating search and rescue operations, counter-terrorism, highway patrolling, writ of execution, criminal investigation and prosecution.

The police service dates to the 13th century when the first sheriffs were appointed. As the first city in Norway to do so, Trondheim had a chief of police appointed in 1686, and Oslo established a uniformed police corps in 1859. The directorate is led by National Police Commissioner Odd Reidar Humlegård. Police districts were introduced in 1894, with the current structure dating from 2003.

Mark Saunders

Mark Saunders may refer to:

Chief of police

A Chief of Police, also known as Police Chief or sometimes shortened to just Chief, is the title typically given to the top official in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. Alternate titles for this position include Police Commissioner, Colonel (according to Rhode Island State Police), Police Superintendent, and Chief Constable. In contrast to a Sheriff (who is generally elected by the voters of a county, except in the states of Rhode Island and Hawaii), a Chief of Police is usually a municipal employee who owes his allegiance to a city or town. Some states have both an appointed and an elected Chief of Police (Louisiana). In some jurisdictions the head of the police commission is the leader of the police and holds a position analogous or similar to the one described here, in this case he is referred to as Commissioner. The New York City Police Department has both a Police Commissioner and a Chief, formerly called the Chief Inspector, now called the Chief of Department. In Louisiana, a Chief of Police may serve as the Chief of Police, Marshal, and Constable for a city. The fraternal organization International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is an organization often associated with many Chiefs of Police.

Toronto Police Service

The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is the police force servicing Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1834, it was the first municipal police service created in North America and one of the oldest police services in the English-speaking world. It is the largest municipal police service in Canada and third largest police force in Canada after the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

At a budget of over $1 billion, it ranks second only to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in the budgetary expenses of the municipal government of Toronto.

History

1834 creation to 1859 reforms

The Toronto Police Service was founded in 1834 when the city of Toronto was first created from the town of York. (Prior to that, local able-bodied male citizens were required to report for night duty as special constables for a fixed number of nights a year on the pain of fine or imprisonment in a system known as "watch and ward".)

The Toronto Police is one of the English-speaking world’s oldest modern municipal police departments; older than, for example, the New York City Police Department which was formed in 1845 or the Boston Police Department which was established in 1839. The London Metropolitan Police of 1829 is generally recognized as the first modern municipal department. In 1835, Toronto retained five full-time constables—a ratio of about one officer for every 1,850 citizens. Their daily pay was set at 5 shillings for day duty and 7 shillings, 6 pence, for night duty. In 1837 the constables’ annual pay was fixed at £75 per annum, a lucrative city position when compared to the mayor’s annual pay of £250 at the time.