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The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers encompass arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces 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 the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) following the partition of Ireland. At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers, with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve.
The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, has been equal in stature to the Victoria Cross, the highest military award for valour. It is awarded "for acts of the greatest heroism or for most conspicuous courage in circumstance of extreme danger", not in the presence of the enemy, to members of the British armed forces and to British civilians. Posthumous awards have been allowed since it was instituted. It was previously awarded to residents of Commonwealth countries, most of which have since established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any military rank in any service and to civilians including police, emergency services and merchant seamen. Many of the awards have been personally presented by the British monarch to recipients or, in the case of posthumous awards, to next of kin. The investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace.
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Most law enforcement duties are carried out by those who hold the office of police constable of a territorial police force.
Chief Constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, and Civil Nuclear Constabulary. The title is also held by the chief officers of the principal Crown Dependency police forces and the Sovereign Base Areas Police in Cyprus. The title was also held, ex officio, by the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers under the Police Reform Act 2002. It was also the title of the chief officer of the Royal Parks Constabulary until this agency was disbanded in 2004.
Michael Kenneth Pratt GC is a former constable of the Victoria Police Force in Melbourne, Australia, who received the George Cross for outstanding bravery in his efforts to thwart the armed robbery of a bank in 1976.
Ian Warwick Blair, Baron Blair of Boughton, is a British retired policeman who held the position of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2005 to 2008 and was the highest-ranking officer within the Metropolitan Police Service.
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police service created in North America and is one of the oldest police services in the English-speaking world.
James Wallace Beaton, GC, CVO is a retired British police officer who was awarded the George Cross, Britain's highest gallantry award for civilians. He was Queen's Police Officer from 1983 to 1992.
Stephen Waldorf was a 26-year-old man who was shot and seriously injured by police officers in London on 14 January 1983 after they mistook him for David Martin, an escaped criminal. The shooting caused a public outcry and led to a series of reforms to the training and authorisation of armed police officers in the United Kingdom. Martin was a cross-dressing thief and fraudster who was known to carry firearms and had previously shot a police officer. He escaped from custody in December 1982 and the police placed his girlfriend under surveillance. On the day of the shooting, they followed her as she travelled in a car whose front-seat passenger (Waldorf) resembled Martin. When the car stopped in traffic, Detective Constable Finch—the only officer present who had met Martin—was sent forward on foot to confirm the passenger's identity.
Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, usually just Assistant Commissioner (AC), is the third highest rank in London's Metropolitan Police, ranking below Deputy Commissioner and above Deputy Assistant Commissioner. There have usually been four officers in the rank; however, as of December 2023, there are seven owing to the appointment of a new portfolio, Trust and Legitimacy, and the continuing secondments of Rob Beckley to Operation Resolve, the criminal investigation into the Hillsborough Disaster, and Stephen Kavanagh to Interpol. There have also, at times, been five or six.
Carl Walker, GC was an English police inspector who served in the Lancashire Constabulary until 1982 when he was forced to retire due to injuries sustained in a shooting in Blackpool, an incident after which he was awarded the George Cross.
Frederick William Fairfax GC was a British police detective awarded the George Cross for his heroism in chasing the armed robbers Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig on 2 November 1952. The pair had broken into a warehouse in Croydon and were pursued by Fairfax onto the roof of the building. Fairfax grabbed Bentley then Craig shot him, grazing his shoulder. Despite his injury, the unarmed Fairfax chased Bentley and managed to arrest and subdue him. More officers arrived at the scene and Constable Sidney Miles scaled the roof, to be shot dead by Craig, who then jumped from the roof after expending his ammunition, injured himself upon landing, and was arrested, then later charged with PC Miles's murder.
Henry William Stevens GC was awarded the George Cross for the gallantry he showed while serving as a constable in the Metropolitan Police on 29 March 1958.
The Tottenham Outrage of 23 January 1909 was an armed robbery in Tottenham, North London, that resulted in a two-hour chase between the police and armed criminals over a distance of six miles (10 km), with an estimated 400 rounds of ammunition fired by the thieves. The robbery, of workers' wages from the Schnurmann rubber factory, was carried out by Paul Helfeld and Jacob Lepidus, Jewish Latvian immigrants. Of the twenty-three casualties, two were fatal and several others serious, among them seven policemen. The two thieves killed themselves at the end of the pursuit.
The history of the Metropolitan Police in London is long and complex, with many different events taking place between its inception in 1829 and the present day.
A special constable or special police constable can refer to an auxiliary or part-time law enforcement officer or a person who is granted certain (special) police powers.
DC Stephen Robin Oake, was a police officer serving as an anti-terrorism detective with Greater Manchester Police in the United Kingdom who was murdered while attempting to arrest a suspected terrorist in Manchester on 14 January 2003.
Baden Henry Skitt, known as Bill Skitt, was a British police officer.
References
- 1 2 "George Cross Database". Archived from the original on 16 November 2007. Retrieved 24 December 2007.
- ↑ Ashcroft, Michael (2010). "George Cross Heroes". Discovery Channel.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|url=(help) - ↑ "No. 44316". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 May 1967. pp. 5727–5728.
- Tony Gledhill GC (2006). A Gun to my Head. Historic Military Press.
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