Police

Police, civil body charged with maintaining public order and protecting persons and property from unlawful acts. Most modern forces are descended from the Metropolitan Police established in London by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. In the United States, Boston introduced a similar force in 1836, and New York City soon afterward. Today in the United States the police are organized into around 40,000 separate forces, consisting of local, district, county, and state police and the sheriffs and deputies of around 35,000 towns and villages. There are also federal police agencies, such as the FBI, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the Border Patrol, and the Internal Revenue Service, each responsible to its own civil governing authority. Police powers are in most countries strictly circumscribed by law and constitution. In the United States and Great Britain police are obliged to inform an arrested person of his or her rights.

See also: Peel, Sir Robert.