Constable
- For the painter see John Constable. For the city in New York, see Constable, New York.
UK Police Officer
A Constable refers to a front line officer or member of the Police force in Britain and some countries with a British colonial history, which adopted a Britsh system of policing. This gives rise to the alternative name of Constabulary for the Police force.
In the USA, the equivalent position to constable would be a patrol officer.
In British law and similar legal systems, a Constable has the legal powers of arrest given to him directly by a sworn oath and warrant, rather than being delegated powers that he has simply because he is employed as a Police officer. Technically this means that each sworn Constable is an independent legal official rather than simply an employee of the Police.
In many police forces, the rank of Constable is the lowest rank of a trained police officer. Though the rank of Senior Constable can sometimes mean the head of the police force in an area this is not the case in the UK. The rank of Chief Constable or in the Metropolitain Police in London, Commissioner is used to describe the head of the police force.
Other Police ranks include:
- Chief Constable
- Deputy Chief Constable
- Assistant Chief Constable
- Chief Superintendent
- Superintendent
- Chief Inspector
- Inspector
- Sergeant
- Police Constable (PC)
Also the additional identification of Detective is normally added for those who are involved in plainclothes investigating of more serious crimes rather than just uniform policing and is used as a prefix up to Chief Superintendent, for example Detective Inspector, Detective Constable, etc.
Countries using this system of naming police officers, include:
- Australien
- England
- Indien
- Neuseeland
- Northern Ireland
- Scotland
- Wales
See also
Vereinigte Staaten
In the United States, a constable is charged with "process serving": serving summonses for people to appear in court on criminal and/or civil matters. Often this service is performed by private companies, except for some states like Texas, Tennessee, Arizona , Alabama, Pennsylvania and some others where the Constable is an elected position at the village, precinct or township level of local governments where they serve the local municipal/minor courts or justice of the peace(in PA the constable is considered a locally elected state court officer as all courts are part of the state court system). In these states, Constables sometimes also perform other duties normally required of law enforcement at a county level excercising the same duties of a sheriff but over a smaller jurisdiction. In Texas, Arizona, and other states the village or town constable may be called a marshall.
In the United States Constables may be assisted by Deputy Constables as sworn officers and Constable's Officers as civil staff, usually process servers. Others states also have civilians process servers who are constables.
Ancient Court Position
A courtier in some european countries during the Middle Ages, in charge of keeping the horses of his lord; also a high military rank. From Latin “comes stabulari” (count of the stables).
The office 'constable' was held by the person in charge of the defence of a castle. Even today, there is a Constable of the Tower of London.