I.

POLICING POLICY MODELS

Police Structure: A Comparative Study of Policing Models

Policing is one of the most important of the functions undertaken by the every
sovereign government. For the State machinery, police is an inevitable organ which
would ensure maintenance of © ~ faw and order, and also the first link in the criminal
justice system. On the other hand, for common man, police force is a symbol of brute
force of authority and at the same time, the protector from crime. Police men get a
corporate identity from the uniform they wear; the common man identifies,
distinguishes and awes him on account of the same uniform. The police System across
the world have developed on a social, cultural background , and for this reason, alone
huge difference exist between these police systems.

Significance of Police in Social life:

Police:
1. Represents the presence of civil body politic in everyday life.
2. Conveys a sense of power or sacredness that lies at the root of political order.
3. Represents the means by which the political authorities maintain status quo.
4. Represent the capacity of state to deter citizens from committing acts that
threaten the order they are believed to symbolize.
S. Gives a corporate identity to the police men.

Basic goals of Policing:

1. Enforce laws
2. Preserve peace
3. Prevent Crimes
4. Protect civil rights, liberties Provide services

Role of Police

The role of police is to address all sorts of problems when and in so far as their
solutions do or possibly require the use of force at the point of their occurrence.
Police is viewed as fulfilling the following roles in social life:

1. A watchman
2. A law enforcer
3. A service provider

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 Authority of Police

The authority of police comes from the people their laws and institutions. Police
agencies are not only part of the community but also part of the government, which
determine their formal base of authority and of criminal justice system, which
determines society's course in deterring lawbreakers and rehabilitating offenders.

In a Constitutional system, the ultimate authority springs from the Constitution

itself. The authority of police in every jurisdiction is derived from the sovereign authority
it could be either the Constitution which gives the elected government executive
authority over the subjects or the “ground norm” which gives the sovereign authority
over its subjects devoid of any written constitution.

Different Models of Policing:

The organization of police’ in different countries is primarily rooted on the socio-

cultural and historic background of the country. For example in UK which has long
tradition of parliamentary democracy, policing works on the principle of consent by the
population, where as in most other countries, policing power is vested on state by law.

As such the police organizations have nothing in common in = many countries

except their basic goals (in some jurisdictions even these goals do not match). However
criminologists have tried to bring out common features in police structures world over
on the basis of certain ‘eatures, the most prominent of them being he command
architecture.

1. Classification based on legitimacy or legal backing of police function:

a. Policing by consent
b. Policing by law
2. Classification based on Command structure
a. Centralized
b. decentralized
c. Single/Singular
d. Multiple - Coordinated, Uncoordinated

In this model classification is based on two dimensions:

A. Number of forces to be commanded: If the entire police force in
the country is organized as a single force under a single commander, the model
is called Singular model, and if in a single country, there are a number of police
forces, like in India, it is called “Multiple model”. Inside the multiple model, if the
polices forces have well defined territories of functioning and their functions do
not ovérlap each other, the model is called Multiple Coordinated, if the case is

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 reverse as in India, where many agencies can have overlapping jurisdictions, it is
called Multiple Uncoordinated.
B. Type of forces: If the police forces in a country is highly organized
and having a centralized command, it is called Coordinated Centralized police
force, and ifthe police forces in a country do not have an apparent centralized
command structure, it is called “decentralized command structure”

II. Comparative Study of Police Systems:

1. Saudi Arabia
 a typical model of centralized coordinated police force with a singular
line of command emanating from the King. Both Minister of Interior
and Director of Public Safety are appointed by the King and both are
usually senior members of the King’s family itself.
 Public Security Police is responsible for general policing throughout
the country and derives its authority from Executive Orders and the
Shariah. Public Security Police is divided into Regular Police and Special
Investigative Police (SIP) known as “Mubahit”.
 Regular Police is directly under the control of Ministry of
Interior, and is run by Director of Public Safety.
 SIP works under the control of Genera| Directorate of
Investigation (GIP) and is responsible for criminal
investigations and manages domestic security and counter
intelligence functions
 There is also a religious police called Mutawwiun, which is
directly under the King, and whose main duty is enforcement
of Islamic Shariah. Since Mutawwiun generally takes the form
of a religious band, and is not responsible for any general law
and order maintenance functions, they are more a religious
sect, than a police force. Except the Mutawwiun, police force
is organized as a single unit in Saudi Arabia.

 While this is the general picture of policing in Saudi Arabia, there are
jurisdictional pockets of tribal authority in Saudi Arabia, which is beyond
the reach of even the King’s justice. In the tribal pockets, the tribal elders
are a law unto themselves and they do not entertain the interference of
any external authorities. So law and order or criminal investigation issues
in these pockets are undertaken by the tribal elders themselves, with the
regular police giving tactical support wherever required.
 One important feature of Saudi Police System is that the line
distinguishing the Saudi Regular Armed forces and Police is very narrow
and many a times the policing functions are amply supported by Saudi
National guard and the armed forces.

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 1. China:
 China is another model of Singular Coordinated Centralized police force.
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) is a functional organization under
the State Council in charge of public security work nationwide.
 Public security departments are set in provinces and autonomous regions;
metropolitan public security bureaus are set in direct municipalities;
public security bureaus or divisions are assigned to cities and prefectures;
sub-bureaus are set in sub-regions of cities, under the direct leadership
of their superior public security agencies; public security bureaus are set
in counties and banners, under the leadership of their respective local
government and superior public security agencies.
 Dispatched police stations are directly subordinate to their superior
public security bureaus and sub-bureaus in counties and banners.

2. France
 France is a_ typical example of a police force with Multiple Coordinated
centralized force. France has two national law enforcement agencies:
 Police Nationale, formerly called the Surete- a civilian force;
primary responsibility in urban areas; run under the Ministry of
the Interior
 Gendarmerie Nationale , its primary responsibility are rural
areas and military installations.

Apart from these two, there are other agencies like:

Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects, a civilian
customs service more commonly known as the “Douane”, under the Minister of
Budget, Public Accounting and Civil Servants. French municipalities may also
have a local police called the Police municipale, Garde municipale or Garde
champetre, with — restricted powers: they can only enforce the municipal by-
laws.

3. United Kingdom
 United Kingdom (UK) which comprises of England, Scotland and Northern
Ireland is the world oldest democracy and policing in UK also grown from
the principle of “policing by consent”, Even though the basic premise of
policing in UK is by consent, the British Police system as it exists how is
more of a reverse process of investing more power in people by law, than
policing by consent.
 As such, the policing in UK has now become policing by law, but a law
which mandates a police which is accountable to public. UK is a typical
example of Multiple Coordinated Decentralized police force. UK does not
have a national police service, but a nework of of 43 individual police ,

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 UK has a three-way system of responsibility that ensures fi to run smoothly:
1. Home Office funds the Police and has the overall responsibility as
overseer and Coordinator of the police forces,
2. Police Authorities make sure local forces operate efficiently and
effectively,
3. Chief Police Officers have responsibility for the direction and control of
regional forces.

According to UK Home Office, this system prevents political interference in policing and avoids
giving any single organization power over the entire police service.

Activity 13. Choose at least 5 countries all over the world. In a table, classify depending
on the categories as discussed previously. Beow the table, describe the policing systemof the
chosen country not to exceed 5 sentences.
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