Powers
In law, every member of a police force is a Constable whatever their actual rank, in the sense that, despite being a low-ranking or high-ranking officer, all have the same powers of arrest. The basic police powers of arrest and search of an ordinary Constable are identical to those of a Superintendent or Chief Constable; however certain higher ranks are given administrative powers to authorise certain police actions. In England and Wales, these include the powers to:
- authorise the continued detention of up to 24 hours of a person arrested for an offence and brought to a police station (granted to Sergeants and above at designated police stations),
- authorise section 18 (1) PACE house searches (granted to Inspectors and above), or
- extend the length of prisoner detention to 36 hours (granted to Superintendents).
Some authorities are matters of force or national or force policy and not subject to law, such as authorising the use of tyre deflation devices, and authorising the use of safe controlled crashes of pursued vehicles, by trained traffic police officers.
In relation to police officers of the Home Office or territorial police forces of England and Wales, Section 30 of the Police Act 1996 states that "a member of a police force shall have all the powers and privileges of a Constable throughout England and Wales and the adjacent United Kingdom waters". Police officers do not need to be on duty to exercise their powers and can act off duty if circumstances require it (technically placing themselves back on duty). Officers from the police forces of Scotland and Northern Ireland and non-territorial special police forces have different jurisdictions. See List of police forces in the United Kingdom for a fuller description of jurisdictions.
Read more about this topic: Police Ranks Of The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the word powers:
“Strange and predatory and truly dangerous, car thieves and muggers—they seem to jeopardize all our cherished concepts, even our self-esteem, our property rights, our powers of love, our laws and pleasures. The only relationship we seem to have with them is scorn or bewilderment, but they belong somewhere on the dark prairies of a country that is in the throes of self-discovery.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)
“I have come slowly into possession of such powers as I have ... I receive the opinions of my day. I do not conceive them. But I receive them into a vivid mind.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The poet is the person in whom these powers are in balance, the man without impediment, who sees and handles that which others dream of, traverses the whole scale of experience, and is representative of man, in virtue of being the largest power to receive and to impart.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)