Superintendent of police

“ Provided that no power under this section in relation to the accounts of any person shall be exercised by a police officer below the rank of a Superintendent of Police unless he is specially authorised in this behalf by a police officer of or above the rank of a Superintendent of Police. ”

“ To subject all the police to frequent visit and inspection, that they might feel the influence of a vigilant eye over them. To relieve the collector-magistrate from this addition to his many duties, by appointing in each district a European officer with no other duty than that of managing the police of the district, subject to a general superintendent of police for each presidency. To increase the salaries of the police, in order that the office might have a higher dignity in the estimation of the natives, and in order that the official might be less tempted to extortion or bribery. ”

“ This second bureau with its second deputy superintendent well discriminates and divides the clerical, inspectional and disciplinary functions of the police department from those of the active force. But to superimpose upon all these well co-ordinated duties the entire responsibility for “supervising the strict enforcement of all laws and ordinances pertaining to all matters affecting public morals” threatens to make impossible either the efficient fulfilment of those routine functions or the effective repression of vice. ”

“ Unfortunately the annual reports of the Superintendent of Police for the four years from 1878 to 1881 were suppressed and for them were substituted, by order of the Governor, bare statistics of crimes committed. ”

“ He has an idea that the Police Superintendent is the natural enemy of those who discuss politics, and that he has the power of hanging any such person in the back part of the jail at the Collector's command. ”

“ Gooding holds no light responsibility. His duty is to see that no man leaves the school to be attached to a division who is in the faintest degree lacking in all that goes to make an officer of the Metropolitan Police.
Tactful and sympathetic, a shrewd judge of character, able to discriminate between nervousness and stupidity, a disciplinarian, with a gift of lucid exposition, an organiser, and a man with a fixed belief in the honourable nature of his calling. That is Superintendent Gooding, and his characteristics are reflected in his staff. ”

“ Every man in grades right up to the superintendent has begun at the bottom of the ladder. You will have seen the constable, placid and unemotional, pacing the streets at the regulation beat of two and a half miles an hour—do you know how much he has to know before he is trusted alone on his duty? ”

“ The existing police force, which like that in other districts was constituted by Act XXIV of 1859, is in charge of a District Superintendent stationed at Rajahmundry, aided by an Assistant Superintendent at Bhadráchalam who has immediate control over the police in the Agency. ”

“ That the Mounted Police Force was continuously progressive to ever higher efficiency was due in no small measure to the fact that officers and men were encouraged to be on the look out for improved methods and to feel free to suggest these to those in command. Superintendent Perry had been the means of bringing about a system of districts and sub-districts with constables scattered over many points rather than concentrated at headquarters, qualified only by the suggestion that changes be often made so as to keep all in touch with regimental duties. ”

“ The Masses in this district are said to have no longer any dread of going to jail owing to the inducements held out to them that they will be treated as political prisoners and fare better than in their own homes. The police have come in for more than their fair share of attention from the non-co-operators during the week and the Superintendent of Police is of opinion that his force has become exasperated almost beyond endurance by the gross insults and abuse that has been heaped upon them. ”

“ The investigator finds that everything with which a chief of police is forced to cope in an ordinary town is work for the menagerie superintendent also. The same fights, the same quarrels, the same hatreds are there; the only difference is that the chief of police has the advantage. He copes with human beings, to whom he can talk, and whom he can warn against future infractions of the law. The law-breakers under the supervision of the menagerie superintendent are animals; one can’t punish a lion [57] by fining him five bones. ”

“ The post of superintendent in London is at least equivalent in its responsibilities to the average chief-constableship of the provinces. There are metropolitan section sergeants who have as many men under their control as some chief constables of small boroughs.
The unit of the Metropolitan Police is a division which averages about a thousand men. Each is under a superintendent, with a chief-inspector as second in command. Thereafter the ranks run:
These are distributed among close on two hundred police stations in the metropolis, and in twenty-two divisions. ”

“ To enhance police operational efficiency and effectiveness, the Chief of the PNP may constitute such other support units as may be necessary subject to the approval of the Commission: Provided, That no support unit headed by a chief superintendent or a higher rank can be created unless provided by law. ”

“ IV Haggard and with rebellious limbs, Police-constable Bennett staggered into the superintendent's office in the early morning.
"I have paid careful attention to your advice," he said to the superintendent, "and I have passed across the city in search of crime. In its place I have found but folly—such folly as you have, such folly as I have myself—the common heritage of our blood. It seems that in some way I have bound myself to bring criminals to justice. I have passed across the city, and I have found no man worse than myself. ”

“ The tall man, who responded to the name of Busby, accordingly passed from the lobby into the governor's office.
"Any thing new?" asked the turnkey, rubbing his nose with the end of the massive emblem of his office, and accosting the two police authorities, who had seated themselves on the bench facing the gate.
"Not that I know on," returned the Serjeant; "leastways nothink partickler—unless it is that my Superintendent here is doing someot in the littererry line, and writing a book about Great Criminals, and Police, and Prisons, and all that there kind of thing." ”

“ The authorities visit the settlement and examine the police reports, which are all entered by a paid and, most likely, convict clerk, who, if the latter, must obey the orders of his superior unquestioningly and willingly, or be turned into the chain-gang; or, if a free man, can only deviate from the injunctions of his master at peril of a nod of dismissal procured for him from the official head by a single word whispered by the Superintendent. ”

“ If he can rise to the top there is no reason, so far as I can see, why he should not be an eligible candidate for the superintendency of a municipal police force. The chief that I had, if he were able to gather the right men about him, could protect a large city as successfully as he now protects a big railroad system. If it is impossible for a would-be beginner to find lodgment in any police force at the start, my suggestion is that he experiment with the work of a police reporter on a newspaper. ”

“ In practice, not all arrests are given incident numbers, meaning supervisors may never know to review them. These systemic deficiencies in oversight are consistent with an approach to law enforcement in which productivity and revenue generation, rather than lawful policing, are the priority. Thus, even as commanders exhort line supervisors to more closely supervise officer activity, they perpetuate the dynamics that discourage meaningful supervision. ”

“ The rough and the criminal do not fear the prowess of the individual policeman, they fear the organization behind him—take that away, and the constable becomes merely a big man armed with nothing more formidable than a wooden truncheon.
The result of this temporary and partial breakdown of the organization was that the whole force suffered a double loss; the general public, no longer feeling the old confidence in the power of the police to protect them, withheld to some extent their moral support ”

“ No less relentless in the search for efficiency are the promotion conditions. The Commissioner is an absolute autocrat so far as promotion is concerned, though, in practice, he usually acts upon the recommendation of the superintendents.
A constable, before he is promoted, must serve at least five years—in practice, the average is eight years—and must then pass two examinations. One of these is set by the Civil Service Commissioners to test his education, the other is an examination in police duty before a board of high officials. ”

“ The detection of this form of corruption is difficult; nevertheless, if it continues, the people are evidently not awake to their own best interests. In other cities, on the other hand, the police force is maintained upon a high standard. Sometimes civil-service-reform methods are used in the selection of policemen; the passing of an examination is necessary for appointment. This, with a fair system of promotions, should render a police force more like a military organization in its relation to the enforcement of law. ”

“ The rules would be good for men in almost any walk of life; and I rather think the police-officers conform to them with tolerable strictness. They appear to be subordinated to one another on the military plan. The ordinary constable does not sit down in the presence of his inspector, and this latter seems to be half a gentleman; at least, such is the bearing of our Southport inspector, who wears a handsome uniform of green and silver, and salutes the principal inhabitants, when meeting them in the street, with an air of something like equality. ”

“ We commend City officials for beginning to take steps to address some of the concerns we have already raised. Nonetheless, these changes are only a small part of the reform necessary. Addressing the deeply embedded constitutional deficiencies we found demands an entire reorientation of law enforcement in Ferguson. The City must replace revenue-driven policing with a system grounded in the principles of community policing and police legitimacy, in which people are equally protected and treated with compassion, regardless of race. ”

“ FPD's Weak Oversight of Use of Force Reflects its Lack of Concern for Whether Officer Conduct Is Consistent with the Law or Promotes Police Legitimacy FPD's use-of-force review system is particularly ineffectual. Force frequently is not reported. When it is, there is rarely any meaningful review. Supervisors do little to no investigation; either do not understand or choose not to follow FPD's use-of-force policy in analyzing officer conduct; rarely correct officer misconduct when they find it ”

“ From the beginning it was realized that law enforcement is not properly a military responsibility. Yet the necessity for using the Constabulary, as it existed in 1935, as the nucleus out of which to establish the Army’s foundation, and the paucity of trained men for key positions had been the causes of the temporary consolidation heretofore existing. In the hope of avoiding wholesale transfers from the Army for police work, the establishment of a State Police from civilian sources was attempted in 1936. ”

“ In some cases the local police are seriously remiss in their duties. I have recommended on many occasions, to numerous municipalities, that it is better that the local police be reduced in number but paid sufficiently to assure absolute honesty. I would rather have a police force of two honest men in a town than a police force of 20 men of uncertain integrity.
In my message to the Congress on the state of the nation in June, last year, I proposed that the Military Police Command be eventually converted into a civilian police force under the Department of the Interior. ”

“ Remove supervisors who do not adequately review officer activity and reports or fail to support, through words or actions, unbiased policing;Ensure that an adequate number of qualified first-line supervisors are deployed in the field to allow supervisors to provide close and effective supervision to each officer under the supervisor's direct command, provide officers with the direction and guidance necessary to improve and develop as officers, and to identify, correct, and prevent misconduct. ”

“ After all it would not be such a terrible thing, Pullman, for you to give up being Chief of Police, particularly when you are not permitted to be chief of police, but must yield your judgment to the district commissioners who have yielded their judgment to the White House. Being Chief of Police under such circumstances can hardly be worth while. ”

“ Promotions are based on merit, and pensions are paid men who have served a certain term of years. This plan has improved conditions by taking [Pg 145] the police out of politics to a large degree. The policy of the head of the department is of the greatest importance to the public. The temptations for graft and corruption in a police department are enormous, but the assurance of a square deal all up and down the line, strict orders to uphold the law, and a well-defined policy against graft of every description, will do wonders to keep a department honest and efficient. ”