Law Enforcement in Japan

Law enforcement in Japan is provided by the Prefectural Police under the oversight of the National
Police Agency or NPA. The NPA is headed by the National Public Safety Commission thus ensuring that
Japan's police are an apolitical body and free of direct central government executive control. They are
checked by an independent judiciary and monitored by a free and active press.
The Japanese government established a European-style civil police system in 1874, under the
centralized control of the Police Bureau within the Home Ministry, to put down internal disturbances and
maintain order during the Meiji Restoration. By the 1880s, the police had developed into a nationwide
instrument of government control, providing support for local leaders and enforcing public morality. They
acted as general civil administrators, implementing official policies and thereby facilitating unification and
modernization. In rural areas especially, the police had great authority and were accorded the same
mixture of fear and respect as the village head. Their increasing involvement in political affairs was one of
the foundations of the authoritarian state in Japan in the first half of the twentieth century.
The centralized police system steadily acquired responsibilities, until it controlled almost all aspects of
daily life, including fire prevention and mediation of labor disputes. The system regulated public health,
business, factories, and construction, and it issued permits and licenses. The Peace Preservation Law of
1925 gave police the authority to arrest people for "wrong thoughts". Special Higher Police (Tokko) were
created to regulate the content of motion pictures, political meetings, and election campaigns.
The Imperial Japanese Army's military police (Kempeitai) and the Imperial Japanese Navy's Tokeitai,
operating under their respective services and the justice and home ministries aided the civilian police in
limiting proscribed political activity. After the Manchurian Incident of 1931, military police assumed greater
authority, leading to friction with their civilian counterparts. After 1937 police directed business activities
for the war effort, mobilized labor, and controlled transportation.
After Japan's surrender in 1945, occupation authorities retained the prewar police structure until a new
system was implemented and the Diet passed the 1947 Police Law. Contrary to Japanese proposals for a
strong, centralized force to deal with postwar unrest, the police system was decentralized. About 1,600
independent municipal forces were established in cities, towns, and villages with 5,000 inhabitants or
more, and a National Rural Police was organized by prefecture. Civilian control was to be ensured by
placing the police under the jurisdiction of public safety commissions controlled by the National Public
Safety Commission in the Office of the Prime Minister. The Home Ministry was abolished and replaced by
the less powerful Ministry of Home Affairs, and the police were stripped of their responsibility for fire
protection, public health, and other administrative duties.
When most of the occupation forces were transferred to Korea in 195051, the 75,000 strong National
Police Reserve was formed to back up the ordinary police during civil disturbances, and pressure
mounted for a centralized system more compatible with Japanese political preferences. The 1947 Police
Law was amended in 1951 to allow the municipal police of smaller communities to merge with the
National Rural Police. Most chose this arrangement, and by 1954 only about 400 cities, towns, and
villages still had their own police forces. Under the 1954 amended Police Law, a final restructuring
created an even more centralized system in which local forces were organized by prefectures under
a National Police Agency.
The revised Police Law of 1954, still in effect in the 1990s, preserves some strong points of the post-war
system, particularly measures ensuring civilian control and political neutrality, while allowing for increased
centralization. The National Public Safety Commission system has been retained. State responsibility for
maintaining public order has been clarified to include coordination of national and local efforts;
centralization of police information, communications, and record keeping facilities; and national standards
for training, uniforms, pay, rank, and promotion. Rural and municipal forces were abolished and
integrated into prefectural forces, which handled basic police matters. Officials and inspectors in various
ministries and agencies continue to exercise special police functions assigned to them in the 1947 Police
Law.
National Organization
National Public Safety Commission
The mission of the National Public Safety Commission is to guarantee the neutrality of the police by
insulating the force from political pressure and to ensure the maintenance of democratic methods in
police administration. The commission's primary function is to supervise the National Police Agency, and
it has the authority to appoint or dismiss senior police officers. The commission consists of a chairman,
who holds the rank of minister of state, and five members appointed by the prime minister with the
consent of both houses of the Diet. The commission operates independently of the cabinet, but liaison
and coordination with it are facilitated by the chairman's being a member of that body.
National Police Agency
As the central coordinating body for the entire police system, the National Police Agency determines
general standards and policies; detailed direction of operations is left to the lower echelons.
[1]
In a
national emergency or large-scale disaster, the agency is authorized to take command of prefectural
police forces. In 1989 the agency was composed of about 1,100 national civil servants, empowered to
collect information and to formulate and execute national policies. The agency is headed by a
commissioner general who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission with the approval of
the prime minister.
The Central Office includes the Secretariat, with divisions for general operations, planning, information,
finance, management, and procurement and distribution of police equipment, and five bureaus.
Police Administration Bureau
The Administration Bureau is concerned with police personnel, education, welfare, training, and unit
inspections.
Criminal Investigation Bureau
The Criminal Investigation Bureau is in charge of research statistics and the investigation of nationally
important and international cases. This bureau's Safety Department is responsible for crime prevention,
combating juvenile delinquency, and pollution control. In addition, the Criminal Investigation Bureau
surveys, formulates, and recommends legislation on firearms, explosives, food, drugs, and narcotics. The
Communications Bureau supervises police communications systems.
Traffic Bureau
The Traffic Bureau licenses drivers, enforces traffic safety laws, and regulates traffic. Intensive traffic
safety and driver education campaigns are run at both national and prefectural levels. The bureau's
Expressway Division addresses special conditions of the nation's growing system of express highways.
Security Bureau
The Security Bureau formulates and supervises the execution of security policies. It conducts research on
equipment and tactics for suppressing riots and oversees and coordinates activities of the riot police. The
Security Bureau is also responsible for security intelligence on foreigners and radical political groups,
including investigation of violations of the Alien Registration Law and administration of the Entry and Exit
Control Law. The bureau also implements security policies during national emergencies and natural
disasters.
Regional Public Safety Bureaus
The National Police Agency has seven regional police bureaus, each responsible for a number of
prefectures. Each is headed by a Director and they are organizational similar to the Central Office. They
are located in major cities of each geographic region. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and
Hokkaido Prefectural Police Headquarters are excluded from the jurisdiction of RPBs. Headed by a
Director General; each RPB exercises necessary control and supervision over and provides support
services to prefectural police within its jurisdiction, under the authority and orders of NPA's Commissioner
General. Attached to each Regional Police Bureaus is a Regional Police School which provides police
personnel with education and training required of staff officers as well as other necessary education and
training.
Regional Police Bureaus:
Tohoku - Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, and Fukushima Prefectures
Kinki - Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, and Wakayama Prefectures
Shikoku - Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, Kochi Prefectures
Kanto - Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano, and
Shizuoka Prefectures
Chubu - Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Prefectures
Kyushu - Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and Okinawa
Prefectures
Chugoku - Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Yamaguchi Prefectures
Police Communications Divisions
Metropolitan Tokyo and the island of Hokkaid are excluded from the regional jurisdictions and are run
more autonomously than other local forces, in the case of Tokyo, because of its special urban situation,
and of Hokkaid, because of its distinctive geography. The National Police Agency maintains police
communications divisions in these two areas to handle any coordination needed between national and
local forces.
Imperial Guard
In 1947 the Imperial Police Headquarters ( Kg-Keisatsu Honbu
?
) was created under the
control of the Ministry from the Imperial Household Ministry. It came under the aegis of the National Police
Agency of Japan in 1957. It provides personal security for the Emperor, Crown Prince and other members
of the Imperial Family of Japan, as well as protection of imperial properties, including the Tokyo Imperial
Palace, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Katsura Imperial Villa, Shugakuin Imperial Villa (both in Kyoto), Shosoin
Imperial Repository in Nara and the imperial villas as Hayama, Kanagawa and Nasu, Tochigi.
Strength
As of 2010, the total strength reached approximately 291,475 personnel.
[2]
The NPA total is about 7,709
with 1,969 police officers, 901 Imperial guards and 4,839 civilians.
[2]
The Prefectural police total is about
283,766 with 255,156 police officers and 28,610 civilians.
[2]

Nationwide, there are about 14,900 female police officers and about 11,800 female civilians.
[2]

Local organization
There are some 289,000 police officers nationwide, about 97 percent of whom were affiliated with local
police forces. Local forces include:
[2]

forty-three prefectural (ken) police forces;
Tokyo Metropolitan (to) police force, in Tokyo;
two urban prefectural (fu) police forces, in Osaka and Kyoto; and
One district (d) police force, in Hokkaid.
These forces have limited authority to initiate police actions. Their most important activities are regulated
by the National Police Agency, which provides funds for equipment, salaries, riot control, escort, and
natural disaster duties, and for internal security and multiple jurisdiction cases. National police statutes
and regulations establish the strength and rank allocations of all local personnel and the locations of local
police stations. Prefectural police finance and control the patrol officer on the beat, traffic control, criminal
investigations, and other daily operations.
Prefectural Police
Each prefectural police headquarters contains administrative divisions corresponding to those of the
bureaus of the National Police Agency. Headquarters are staffed by specialists in basic police functions
and administration and are commanded by an officer appointed by the local office of the National Public
Safety Commission. Most arrests and investigations are performed by prefectural police officials (and, in
large jurisdictions, by police assigned to substations), who are assigned to one or more central locations
within the prefecture. Experienced officers are organized into functional bureaus and handle all but the
most ordinary problems in their fields.
Kban
Kbans are substations near major transportation hubs and shopping areas and in residential districts.
They form the first line of police response to the public. The Koban system is composed of about 6500
police boxes (Koban) and about 7600 residential police boxes (Chuzaisho).
[3]
Koban is staffed by
relatively small number of police officers (3-5 officers in usual), and also Chuzaisho is usually staffed by a
single officer. About 20 percent of the total police force is assigned to koban. Staffed by officers working
in eight-hour shifts, they serve as a base for foot patrols and usually have both sleeping and eating
facilities for officers on duty but not on watch. In rural areas, residential offices usually are staffed by one
police officer who resides in adjacent family quarters. These officers endeavour to become a part of the
community, and their families often aid in performing official tasks.
Vigilance at the Koban and Chuzaisho is maintained by standing watch in front or sitting watch inside,
enabling police officers to respond immediately to any incident. While keeping a constant watch, they
perform a myriad of routine tasks, such as receiving crime reports from citizens, handling lost and found
articles, counselling citizens in trouble and giving directions.
Outside their Koban and Chuzaisho, police officers patrol their beats either on foot, by bicycle or by car.
While on patrol, they gain a precise knowledge of the topography and terrain of the area, question
suspicious-looking persons, provide traffic guidance and enforcement, instruct juveniles, rescue the
injured, warn citizens of imminent dangers and protect lost children and those under the influence or
intoxicated.
Radio-equipped patrol cars are deployed at each PPH, police station, Koban and Chuzaisho. Police
officers use them for routine patrol and rapid response. These cars remain in constant radio contact with
their police station and the communications command center of the PPH. When an emergency is
reported, this rapid response capability plays a major role in the quick resolution of such incidents.
[4]

Officers assigned to koban have intimate knowledge of their jurisdictions. One of their primary tasks is to
conduct twice-yearly house-by-house residential surveys of homes in their areas, at which time the head
of the household at each address fills out a residence information card detailing the names, ages,
occupations, business addresses, and vehicle registration numbers of household occupants and the
names of relatives living elsewhere. Police take special note of names of the aged or those living alone
who might need special attention in an emergency. They conduct surveys of local businesses and record
employee names and addresses, in addition to such data as which establishments stay open late and
which employees might be expected to work late. Participation in the survey is voluntary, and most
citizens cooperate, but an increasing segment of the population has come to regard the surveys as
invasions of privacy.
Riot police
Within their security divisions, each prefecture level police department and the Tokyo police
maintain Kidotai, special riot units. These units were formed after riots at the Imperial Palace in 1952, to
respond quickly and effectively to large public disturbances. They are also used in crowd control during
festival periods, at times of natural disaster, and to reinforce regular police when necessary. Full-time riot
police can also be augmented by regular police trained in riot duties. Currently, there are 10,000 in the
whole riot force.
In handling demonstrations and violent disturbances, riot units are deployed en masse, military style. It is
common practice for files of riot police to line streets through which demonstrations pass. If demonstrators
grow disorderly or deviate from officially sanctioned areas, riot police stand shoulder-to-shoulder,
sometimes three and four deep, to push with their hands to control the crowds. Individual action is
forbidden. Three-person units sometimes perform reconnaissance duties, but more often operations are
carried out by squads of nine to eleven, platoons of twenty-seven to thirty-three, and companies of eighty
to one hundred. Front ranks are trained to open to allow passage of special squads to rescue captured
police or to engage in tear gas assaults. Each person wears a radio with an earpiece to hear commands
given simultaneously to the formation.
The riot police are committed to using disciplined, nonlethal force and do not carry firearms while
engaged in riot control duties. They are trained to take pride in their poise under stress. Demonstrators
also are usually restrained. Police brutality is rarely an issue. When excesses occur, the perpetrator is
disciplined and sometimes transferred from the force if considered unable to keep his temper.
Extensive experience in quelling violent disorders led to the development of special uniforms and
equipment for the riot police units. Riot dress consists of a field-type jacket, which covered several pieces
of body armour and includes a corselet hung from the waist, an aluminium plate down the spine, and
shoulder pads. Armoured gauntlets cover the hands and forearms. Helmets have faceplates and flared
padded skirts down the back to protect the neck. In case of violence, the front ranks carry 1.2-meter
shields to protect against stave and rocks and hold nets on high poles to catch flying objects. Specially
designed equipment includes water cannons, armoured vans, and mobile tunnels for protected entry into
seized buildings.
Because riot police duties require special group action, units are maintained in virtually self-sufficient
compounds and trained to work as a coordinated force. The overwhelming majority of officers are
bachelors who live in dormitories within riot police compounds. Training is constant and focuses on
physical conditioning, mock battles, and tactical problems. A military atmosphere prevailsdress codes,
behavior standards, and rank differentiations are more strictly adhered to than in the regular police. Esprit
de corps is inculcated with regular ceremonies and institutionalization of rituals such as applauding
personnel dispatched to or returning from assignments and formally welcoming senior officers to the
mess hall at all meals.
For many personnel, riot duty serves as a stepping stone because of its reputation and the opportunities it
presents to study for the advanced police examinations necessary for promotion. Because riot duties
demands physical fitnessthe armoured uniform weighed 6.6 kilogramsmost personnel are young,
often serving in the units after an initial assignment in a koban.
Special police
In addition to regular police officers, there are several thousand officials attached to various agencies who
perform special duties relating to public safety. They are responsible for such matters as forest
preservation, narcotics control, fishery inspection, and enforcement of regulations on maritime, labour,
and mine safety.
Special judicial police officials
Cabinet Office
Imperial guard
Ministry of Justice
Prison guard
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Narcotics agent
Labour Standards Inspector
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Authorized Fisheries Supervisor
Officers of Regional Forest Office, under Forestry Agency
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Coast Guard Officer
The largest and most important of these ministry-supervised public safety agencies is the Japan Coast
Guard, an external agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that deals with crime in
coastal waters and maintains facilities for safeguarding navigation. The agency operates a fleet of patrol
and rescue craft in addition to a few aircraft used primarily for anti-smuggling patrols and rescue activities.
In 1990 there were 2,846 incidents in and on the waters. In those incidents, 1,479 people drowned or
were lost and 1,347 people were rescued.
Ministry of Defense
Military police officer
Officials working for public safety, except for Special judicial police officials
There are other officers having limited public safety functions.
The National Diet
Diet guard
Ministry of Justice
Immigration control officer
Immigration inspector
Public security intelligence officer
They handle national security matters both inside and outside the country. Its activities are not generally
known to the public.
Public prosecutor
Public prosecutor's assistant officer
Ministry of Finance
Customs official
Officers of National Tax Agency
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Quarantine Officer
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Animal Quarantine Officers
Plant Protection Officer
Special operations
The National Police Agency has a counter-terrorist unit known as the Special Assault Team, operating
under police control.
A small number of anti-riot-trained police officers had been trained to handle incidents that cannot be
dealt with by regular police and riot police officers, but can operate independently or with SAT
cooperation. These units include the Special Investigations Team of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, the
Osaka Police's Martial Arts Attack Team and the Chiba Police's Attack Response Team.
Rank
Police officers are divided into nine ranks:
Superintendent General
Superintendent Supervisor
Chief Superintendent
Senior Superintendent
Superintendent
Inspector
Assistant Inspector
Sergeant
Senior Police Officer
Police Officer
The NPA Commissioner General holds the highest position of the Japanese police His title is not a rank,
but rather denotes his position as head of the NPA. On the other hand, the MPD Superintendent General
represents not only the highest rank in the system but also assignment as head of the Tokyo Metropolitan
Police Department
Uniform
For much of the twentieth century up to the mid 1990s, police officers wore a formal work uniform
consisting of a tunic or Ike jacket with polished silver buttons, and trousers with a sewn in truncheon
pocket. No stab vest was worn and much less equipment was carried than is today. Following concerns
about the police uniforms safety it was suggested that the uniform should be changed.
From the 1990s it was generally accepted that the police could patrol in "shirt-sleeve order" which meant
that they need not wear the jacket, as its widespread use was hampering in some situations. Female
officers' uniforms have gone through a great variety of styles, as they have tended to reflect the women's
fashions of the time. Tunic style, skirt length and headgear have varied by period and force. By the late
1980s, the female working uniform was virtually identical to male, except for headgear and sometimes
neckwear.
Formal uniform comprises an open-necked tunic (with or without an attached belt, depending on the force
and rank of the Officer) and trousers or skirt, worn with a white or light blue shirt and black tie (usually
clip-on, so it cannot be used to strangle the wearer).
The normal working dress retains the shirt and trousers. In some forces short sleeved shirts may be worn
open-necked. Long sleeved shirts must always be worn with a tie, worn with or without a jersey or fleece.
If a jersey, fleece or jacket is worn over a short sleeved shirt, then a tie must be worn.
Today, female officers almost never wear a skirt in working dress, and frequently wear trousers in formal
dress as well. Officers also frequently wear reflective waterproof jackets, which have replaced the old
greatcoats and cloaks traditionally worn in inclement weather. Most officers now wear stab vests, a type
of body armour, when on duty.
Basic headgear is a peaked cap for men, and a soft round bowler hat for women. Traffic officers wear
white cap covers or caps.
Most Japanese police wear white gloves while they are on duty. Some also wear white pistol belts,
lanyards, helmets, boot laces or leggings.
Conditions of service
Education is highly stressed in police recruitment and promotion. Entrance to the force is determined by
examinations administered by each prefecture. Examinees are divided into two groups: upper-secondary-
school graduates and university graduates. Recruits underwent rigorous trainingone year for upper-
secondary school graduates and six months for university graduatesat the residential police academy
attached to the prefectural headquarters. On completion of basic training, most police officers are
assigned to local police boxes called Kobans. Promotion is achieved by examination and requires further
course work. In-service training provides mandatory continuing education in more than 100 fields. Police
officers with upper-secondary school diplomas are eligible to take the examination for sergeant after three
years of on-the-job experience. University graduates can take the examination after only one year.
University graduates are also eligible to take the examination for assistant police inspector, police
inspector, and superintendent after shorter periods than upper-secondary school graduates. There are
usually five to fifteen examinees for each opening.
The police forces are subject to external oversight. Although officials of the National Public Safety
Commission generally defer to police decisions and rarely exercise their powers to check police actions or
operations, police are liable for civil and criminal prosecution, and the media actively publicizes police
misdeeds. The Human Rights Bureau of the Ministry of Justice solicits and investigates complaints
against public officials, including police, and prefectural legislatures could summon police chiefs for
questioning. Social sanctions and peer pressure also constrain police behavior. As in other occupational
groups in Japan, police officers develop an allegiance to their own group and a reluctance to offend its
principles.
Transportation
Ground
In Japan, there are about 40,000 police vehicles nationwide with the average patrol cruisers being Toyota
Crowns and Nissan Crews and similar large sedans, although small compact and micro cars are used by
rural police boxes and in city centers where they are much more manoeuvrable. Pursuit vehicles depend
on prefectures with the Honda NSX, Subaru Impress, Subaru Legacy, Lancer, Nissan, Mazda RX-7,
and Nissan Fairlady Z are all used in various prefectures for highway patrols and pursuit uses.
With the exception of unmarked traffic enforcement vehicles, all Japanese police forces are painted and
marked in the same ways. Japanese police vehicles are painted black and white with the upper parts of
the vehicle painted white. Motorcycles are usually all white and riot control and rescue vehicles are
painted a steel blue.
Police-community relations
Despite legal limits on police jurisdiction, many citizens retain their views of the police as authority figures
to whom they can turn for aid. The public often seeks police assistance to settle family quarrels, counsel
juveniles, and mediate minor disputes. Citizens regularly consult police for directions to hotels and
residencesan invaluable service in cities where streets are often unnamed and buildings are numbered
in the order in which they have been built rather than consecutively. Police are encouraged by their
superiors to view these tasks as answering the public's demands for service and as inspiring community
confidence in the police. Public attitudes toward the police are generally favourable, although a series of
incidents of forced confessions in the late 1980s raised some concern about police treatment of suspects
held for pretrial detention.
Historical secret police organizations
Tokko (Investigated and controlled political groups and ideologies deemed to be a threat to public
order)
Kempeitai (Military Police of the Imperial Japanese Army)
Tokeitai (Military Police of the Imperial Japanese Navy)

Comparative Police System
Polis = a Greek word which means city-state or a system of organized civil enforcement to preserve
life, liberty, property, food sources, community health and the enforcement of laws.
Politeia = an ancient Greek word derived from the word Polis" the conditions and rights of the citizen,
or citizenship", analogous to the Latin civitas system of government, state organization, form of
government, and, more recently, rgime.
A government of city or civil organization and the state where the word police was said to have been
originated.
Police = The governmental department charged with the regulation and control of the affairs of a
community, now chiefly the department established to maintain order, enforce the law, and
prevent and detect crime. (French word )
Policer =, from Old French policie, civil organization, from Late Latin politia, from Latin, the
State, from Greek politeia, from polites, citizen, from polis, city;)
Praetorian guards = military bodies who serve as guardians of peace in ancient Rome in which
the idea of policing said to have originated.
Officer de la paix = a French term which claimed to be the origin of the term police officer:
Magna Carta from King John of England = "The Great Charter." The Magna Carta is the very
foundation of which the US Constitution was founded upon. The Ten Commandments, the Magna
Carta and the US Constitution guaranteed the people of England and the United States the
fundamental liberties and freedoms, which should have been self-evident for democratic
societies. These documents preserve our greatest heritages in that no person would be deprived
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness absent due process of law and justice.
Art. 39 of the Magna Carta read:
No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disposed or outlawed or banished or in any
way destroyed except by legal judgment of his peers or by the laws of the land ( This then was the
beginning of the Jury System).
Tun policing = A system of policing emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period whereby all male
residents were required to guard the town (tun) to preserve peace and protect the lives and
properties of the people.
About 700 AD, the people living in England in small rural towns used the Anglo-Saxon system.
Ten families in a town (tun) equaled a tithing. Each tithing elected a leader who was known as
the tithingman. Since 10 tithings amounted to 100, the leader of the 100 families was named
the reeve. Both the tithingman and reeve were elected officials. They possessed judicial power
as well as police authority.
Hue and Cry =a village law started in Britain which provides for methods of apprehending a
criminal by an act of the complainant shout to call all male residents to assemble and arrest the
suspect. This becomes the basis of what we call today a citizen's arrest.
Trial by Ordeal = an ancient method of determining the guilt or innocence of a suspect by
subject the suspect to a test or a trial. (Using this procedure it should be said that the citizen
police were able to secure 100% convictions).
Norman Period of Policing (1066- 1285 A.D.)
Norman William (the conqueror, king of France) invaded and conquered England, a military
regime of conquers and dictator began and changes the concept of crime being committed
against the state.
Shires = a division of (55) military areas in England under the Regime of France.
Rieve (the head-man) = the military leader (lieutenants of the army) who is in charge of the
Shires.
Shire-Rieve= it is from were the word Sheriff. A person which absolute powers that no one
could questions his or her actions.
Shire-reeve system = is the policing system during the Norman period when England was
divided into fifty-five (55) military areas, each headed by a ruler called the Rieve.
Constabuli or The Keeper of the Horse = (2) constabuli were appointed to each village to
aid the Rieve in his duties. It becomes the source of the word Constable.

Circuit Judges or Traveling Judge = judge selected to hear cases which were
formerly being judge by the Shire-Rieve and task to travel through and hear criminal cases. This
was the first instance of the division of the police and judicial powers.
Leges Henrici = laws issued by King Henry which marked a great division in the history of
policing. It stated ---There will be certain offenses against the Kings Peace, Arson, Robbery,
Murder, False Coinage and Crimes of Violence which deemed to be felonious. It classifies
offenses against the king and the individual, empowered the police and the citizens to conduct
arrest and assigned grand jury to inquire on the fact of law. It introduced the system called
citizen arrest.

Grand Jury (a body of men) = 1215, a system which make inquisition into the facts of a crime
and eliminate the Anglo-Saxon trial or trial by ordeal system.
Frankpledge System = a system of policing whereby a group of ten neighboring make residents
over twelve years of age were required to guard the town to preserve peace and protect the lives
and properties of the people.
Keepers of the peace = is the proclamation issued by king Richard of England
sometime in 1195 that required the appointment of knights to keep the Kings peace by standing
as guards on bridges and gates while checking the people entering and leaving the cities and
towns?
The Wesyminster Period (1285 1500)
It is called by this name because the laws governing policing came out of the capital of
England, which at the time was Westminster.
In England the watch-and-ward system evolved to provide citizens with protection from crime.
During times of duress, the men on watch would raise the hue and cry to summon assistance
from the citizens of the.
The system developed in 13th century England to preserve the peace in local communities.
Guards were appointed and the duties of the constables at night (watch) and in daytime (ward)
were defined. Town gates remained closed from dusk to dawn, strangers had to produce sureties
to prove their identity and business, up to 16 men maintained the watch in cities, twelve in
boroughs, and four in smaller communities. Modifications to the system were eventually
incorporated in the Statute of Winchester of 1285, a collection of regulations aimed at keeping
the peace.
Statute of 1295 = the law that mark the beginning of the curfew hours, which demanded the
closing of the gates of London during sundown.
Justice of the Peace (about 1361) = this is in response to a study made on the works of the
Shire-rieves or Sheriffs which reveals to be inefficient in law enforcement. Three or four men who
were learned in the law of the land were given authority to pursue arrest, chastise and imprison
violators of law. They handled felonies, misdemeanors and infractions of city or villages
ordinances. This was later abolished about 75 years later.
Courts of the Star-Chamber (1487) = a special court designed to try offenders against the state.
The room set-up is formed in a shape of a star and judges were given great powers such as the
power to force testimony from a defendant leading to a great abuse of power or brutality on the
part of the judges.
The Merchant Police (1500) = Merchants began employing persons to protect their property,
banks employ guards and night watchmen were hired to watch business establishments and
private detectives were employed to locate and identify stolen property.
The Parochial Police = Dividing the people of the cities into religious areas or parishes and they
bond together and employ their own police to protect them and their property.
Military Police (1655) = under Oliver Cromwell, the England and Wales were divided into 12
military districts as Provost Marshall and to act as judges.
King Charles II of England (1663) = passed an act which established or promote the
employment of watchmen or bellmen to be on duty from sunset to sunrise.
Bow Street Runners = a group of men organized by Henry Fielding and named by his brother
John Fielding task to catch thieves and robbers.
Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 = the law that established the first organized police force in
England.
Sir Robert Peel (1829) = the person regarded as the Father of Modern Policing System for
having contributed to the creation of the most efficient police organization in the world. The first
formally organized modern police force was derived after Sir Robert Peels Nickname the
Bobbies
Robert Peel introduced the following concepts of policing: (1) The Police should be
organized along military lines; (2) The police should be placed under screening and
training; (3) the police should be hired on probationary basis; and (4) the police should be
developed by time and by area.
Peels principles of Organization and Administration:
A stable effective military organization of civic police under government control;
Absence of crime would be the best proof of the efficiency of the police;
Fast distribution of crime news to all the police was essential;
The proper territorial distribution of the forces according to hours and shift must be accomplished;
No qualification more indispensable to a police officer than the perfect command of temper since
a quiet and determined manner has more effect, and commands more respects , than violent
action;
Good appearance commands respects;
Proper selection and training is the basis of efficiency;
Public safety requires that every police officer be given a distinguishing number.
Several years after the organization had been functioning, Peel realized that this police were not
doing as well as he had anticipated, this lead him to call for a meeting of the officers and instill the
following concepts:
Police cannot function properly without eh whole hearted support of the people;( police must have
full respect of the citizenry).
Every police officer must sell himself and his services to the people; and
Police officer must go out of their way to assist the public in every way, that they must make
themselves indispensable to the public, since only in that manner could they fulfill their police
function.
Prevention of crime is the basic mission of the police.
The police are the public and the public are the police