The Office of Constable - Police Federation of England and Wales · 2019. 6. 6. · Police officers...

The Office of ConstableThe bedrock of modern day British policing

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Every constable is anindependent legal

entity; the public’s guaranteeof impartiality. Officers of thecrown operate independent ofundue influence, interferenceand with a personalresponsibility which requires a unique type of person andcommitment.

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The Office of Constable

Every officer I know is immensely proud tohold the Office of Constable which lies atthe heart of our unique police service.It encompasses so much: in terms of theexpectations, legal status and the responsibilities ofthe powers that are attributed to every officer whoholds it.

And while it is an immense privilege to hold theOffice of Constable, with that comes greatresponsibility and restrictions on professional and private lives.

Police officers perform their duties to the highest of standards and with integrity, often underintense scrutiny. It is these high standards which ensure British policing is much admiredinternationally. Many countries want to emulate the British model which has taken decadesto establish.

With increasing demands and reduced officer numbers, extreme cuts have taken its toll onthe service but it is testimony to the hard work and dedication of officers throughout thecountry that the finest, long held traditions of the Office of Constable has not been eroded.The Office of Constable works. It brings with it pride, unity and a commitment to serve. It isabout integrity, impartiality, accountability and most importantly, political independence.Above all else it puts the safety and security of the public first.

It is a commendable and admirable Office and one which my colleagues and I are extremelyproud to hold.

John Apter, National Chair, Police Federation of England and Wales

Foreword

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Every sworn police officer in Englandand Wales is a Constable,irrespective of rank. It is from theOffice of Constable that each officerderives their powers.

On appointment each police officer makes adeclaration to “faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of Constable.” InEngland and Wales, police officers swear anof allegiance to the monarch; this is toensure the separation of power and politicalindependence of the Office of Constable.

The Office of Constable means a policeofficer has the additional legal powers ofarrest and control of the public given to himor her directly by a sworn oath and warrant.These are not delegated powers simply

because they have been employed as anofficer and officers are not employees, theyare not agents of the police force, policeauthority or government. Those who holdthe Office of Constable are servants of theCrown.

Each sworn constable is an independentlegal official and each police officer haspersonal liability for their actions or inaction.The chief officer of the force to which theconstable is attached also has a level ofcorporate responsibility.

Police officers have access to most statutoryemployment rights afforded to employees,but it is a criminal offence for police officersto take industrial action.


What is the Office of Constable?


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Swearing allegiance to the Crown

In England and Wales those who decide to become police officers take an oath at thepoint of becoming a constable. The oath, or attestation, is set within the legislationof this country, and is as follows:“I do solemnly and sincerely

declare and affirm that I will well

and truly serve the Queen in the

office of constable, with fairness,

integrity, diligence and

impartiality, upholding

fundamental human rights and

according equal respect to all

people; and that I will, to the

best of my power, cause the

peace to be kept and preserved

and prevent all offences against

people and property; and that

while I continue to hold the said

office I will to the best of my skill

and knowledge discharge all the

duties thereof faithfully

according to law.”


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Police officers must be allowed topolice with discretion. Discretion isthe bedrock of policing; it allowsreasoned and fair decisions based onexperience to be taken by police officerswithout the need to take a course ofaction merely to satisfy targets.

Police officers cannot legally be instructed toarrest a person. It is a decision they musttake for themselves, using their experience,knowledge and discretion to take the mostappropriate course of action to fulfil theirfunction as officers of the Crown.

Police officers have authority under theCrown for the protection of life andproperty, maintenance or order, preventionand detection of crime and prosecution ofoffenders against the peace. With theimposition of central and politically settargets there are dangers that officers’discretion and operational independence isbeing compromised.

Police officers must be apolitical, impartialand accountable for their actions. If not, howand what we police will become subject topolitical whim and electioneering. Theoperational independence of our policeservice comes with the Office of Constable.

The Office of Constable ensures theintegrity, impartiality and accountability ofoperational policing. If we value the rule oflaw, we must protect the Office of Constableand ensure forces have the ability to trainofficers to be apolitical, impartial,independent and accountable.

Police officers must gain a foundation ofknowledge and experience in the executionof duty according to the rule of law, the useof authority and discretion, core skills andthe practicalities and reality of policing.

Government must provide the resources toensure sufficient numbers of multi-skilledsworn officers that can be called uponwhatever the demands.

The government should, as a matter ofurgency, undertake a full, independent andholistic review of policing examining role,structure, governance, function andaccountability. Otherwise there is a genuinefear that the current workforcemodernisation programme could destroythe Office of Constable by default.

The strengths of the Office of Constable


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Holding the Office of Constablemeans a police officer executestheir duty independently, withoutfear or favour.

With the Office of Constable comespersonal accountability and responsibilityfor the protection of life and property, theprevention and detection of crime, themaintenance of law and order and thedetection and prosecution of offenders.

Police officers must be allowed to policeusing common sense, free from politicalpreference and political targets.

The Office of Constable and the rule of lawprotect this.

The Constable must be at the heart ofpolicing communities, ensuring cohesionand security at a local, national andinternational level.Those holding the Office of Constable do soin full knowledge of the increasing dangersthey face, the accountability both on and offduty and the restrictions placed on theirfamily lives.

Police officers’ terms and conditions are laidout in Police Regulations. There are notmany employment rights that police officersdon’t have that ordinary employees do.However, holding the Office of Constableand being a sworn officer of the Crown doesmean there are some restraints upon actionthat the individual can take.

What it means to hold the Office of Constable


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Unlike ordinary employees, theunique status of the Office ofConstable does place somerestrictions on the private life of policeofficers and their families.

These include:5 Abstaining from any activity which is

likely to interfere with the impartialdischarge of duty, or to give theimpression to the public that it mayinterfere. This can apply to immediatefamily also.

5 Getting permission from the appropriatedisciplinary authority for place ofresidence.

5 Not wilfully refusing or neglecting todischarge any lawful debt.

5 Not being able to have a business interestwithout the consent of the appropriatedisciplinary authority.

5 Abstaining from an ‘active’ role in anyparty politics.

Restrictions on the private life of a Constable

Separation of powers

W hile the rule of law binds oursociety together, of equalimportance is the separation ofpower, which prevents overconcentrationof power in any one institution.

At one level, this reflects the legislature, theexecutive, the judiciary. In the case of policing,politicians – democratically elected – makethe laws, police officers enforce them, and thejudiciary decides on the outcome post charge.However, we are each independent andseparately accountable. Operationalindependence is a guiding principle of policing.


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How are those who hold the Office ofConstable different to employees?

Employment law requires allemployees to be ‘protected’ by a contract of employment.Constables are not employees.

Police officers’ conditions of service areprovided by Police Regulations, Police

Conduct Regulations and Police PerformanceRegulations; many reflect similar provisionsto employment law but from a policeperspective. The Police (Health & Safety) Act1997 requires chief officers to provide safeworking environments for police officers.

When Sir Robert Peel was designing thefoundations of our police service, he put at its

heart the citizen in uniform, policing by consent withabsolute impartiality under the law. While the policinglandscape has changed since then, and will doubtlesscontinue to change and face many challenges, we can be justly proud that, thus far, this office of constable has been the beating heart of the British policing modeland has underpinned the service we provide to ourcommunities, including allowing chief officers operationalindependence to make decisions that are right for thesafety of the people in their force area, and shoring up ourforces’ legitimacy through robust accountability.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton – Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council

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Can police officers strike?

Can police officers withhold services?

It is illegal for police officers to takeany form of industrial action. AsOfficers of the Crown, they are boundby the Police Act.

Section 91 of the Police Act provides that acriminal offence will be committed by:

5 those who cause, or attempt to cause,amongst members of the police servicedisaffection, and

5 those that induce them to ‘withhold theirservices’.

There would be a breach of Section 91 ifanyone were to encourage or promote anyof the following:

5 strike action5 an overtime ban (including bans on both

compulsory and voluntary overtime)5 a ‘work to rule’ – in effect a withdrawal of

goodwill; the incitement to do so mightwell be viewed as causing disaffectioncontrary to Section 91.

It’s been suggested that if officerscould withdraw consent to certainactivities (such as holding back theirFirearms Certificate or Driving Permit),this is something they could beencouraged to do.

However:5 Any incitement to members to do so

would probably breach the terms ofSection 91 (‘causing disaffection’, if notinciting members to ‘withhold services’).

5 There is a (albeit limited) risk that such amove (industrial action being unlawful)might leave a member open to claims ofmisfeasance in public office if their action

was to lead to, say, injury to a third party.5 Depending on the circumstances the

officer and any person encouraging themmight incur criminal liability formisconduct in a public office.


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The Tripartite Relationship

In England and Wales there exists atripartite arrangement in policing,which provides checks and balancesbetween the Home Office, police forcesand Police and Crime Commissioners.This means that no one part hascomplete and overall control and powerover the others.

The roles of each element of the tripartitearrangement are as follows:1 The Home Secretary is answerable to

Parliament and the public for the provisionof an efficient and effective police service.The Home Secretary sets out annual

strategic policing priorities, and a statutoryperformance framework against whichpolice performance will be measured andcompared.

2 Chief officers retain overall operationalindependence. The chief officer isresponsible for the direction and control ofthe force, including civilian staff anddelegated financial management.

3 PCCs will aim to cut crime and deliver aneffective and efficient police service foreach of the 41 forces. They will hold theChief Constable to account for thedelivery of the force and will beresponsible for setting the force’s budget.

The Office of Constable is fundamental to oursystem of politically independent policing by

consent. It’s enabled the holders to discharge their dutieswith impartiality and discretion. Communities are policedby members of the community. You can’t have greateraccountability than that.

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In England the office of constable wasin existence during Henry I’s reign.The principal duty of the constable,which was a military term at this stage,was to command the army.

The term constable first appeared afterthe Norman conquest, and towards the endof the 12th century acquired the localsignificance it has held ever since.

The Statute of Westminster 1285enshrined the principles of two highconstables appointed in every hundred withresponsibility for suppressing riots andviolent crimes and for the arming of themilitia to enable them to do so.

The Statute was the only general publicmeasure of any consequence enacted toregulate the policing of the country betweenthe Norman Conquest and TheMetropolitan Police Act 1829.

By the end of the 13th century theconstable acquired two distinctcharacteristics; the executive agent of theparish and an officer recognised by theCrown for keeping the King’s peace.

This system reached its height under theTudors and progressively disintegratedduring the 17th and 18th centuries. Nothingreplaced it until the Victorian era.

As more laws were passed to protectproperty and the person, the Office ofConstable became more established.

In 1798, Patrick Colquhoun convincedwealthy merchants to set up and fund apolice service in the Port of London. It had

60 salaried officers, with Colquhoun as itssuperintending magistrate.

Following this, a number of police forceswere established:

5 The Thames River Police in 1799.5 Royal Irish Constabulary in the first

decades of the 19th century by RobertPeel; an armed force whose primary rolewas the maintenance of order.

Peel’s attempts to introduce a similar modelin mainland Britain failed.

In the early 18th century, the Bow Streetpolice office, under the chief magistrate,operated a rudimentary police force – mostfamously the Bow Street Runners of Henryand John Fielding – but they were short-lived because of a lack of Governmentfunding.


A brief history of the Office of Constable


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Robert Peel pushed through theMetropolitan Police Act in 1829 to createthe Metropolitan Police, which had just over1,000 officers.

Peel created a police office under thedirection of the Home Secretary.Specifically-appointed magistrates should bein charge of the police, with costs met bythe Government and the Metropolitanratepayers. The Bill was passed with verylittle debate and no opposition, mainlybecause the City of London retained its ownpolice.

Peel was determined to establishprofessional policing in the rest of Englandand Wales. The Special Constables’ Act 1831allowed JPs to conscript men as specialconstables to deal with riots.

The outbreak of serious disorder in manytowns over Parliamentary reform led to asudden expansion of provincial policingduring the 1830s.

The Municipal Corporations Act 1835established regular police forces under the

control of new democratic 178 boroughstown councils. Many boroughs simplyappointed the old watchmen to implementthe Act as cheaply as possible. Some ignoredthe Act completely, without reproach orpenalty and therefore the Act’s goodintentions were nullified.

An 1839 Royal Commission proposed thatthere should be a single police force for thewhole of the country (including Wales)outside London, controlled by localmagistrates rather than the local authorities,but the idea was rejected.

In the 1850s, the Government attemptedto reform provincial policing, but facedfurious opposition from the local authorities.Finally, despite the resistance of localauthorities, it passed the County andBorough Police Act 1856:

5 a rural police force was to be created inall counties, and county policemenwould have the same powers in theboroughs that borough policemen hadin the counties.

The major issue in this debate was, whocontrolled or – ought to control – thepolice?

The Government was forced to makeconcessions to the local authorities,including dropping a proposed power toenable Home Secretaries to decide the sizeof a county force.

In the early 20th century, the policeservice had little co-operation betweenforces and no common standards of pay orconditions of service.


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In 1919 the Desborough Committeerecommended that the pay and conditionsof service of all police officers should beimproved, standardised, and placed underthe control of the Home Secretary.

Desborough rejected nationalisation ofthe service and increased a constable’s payto that of a semi-professional worker, ratherthan an agricultural labourer or unskilledworker.

Local authorities protested about theextent of central government control,especially the new pay scales. Protests wereignored, and the Home Office began toexercise a measure of control over the policefor the first time, designed to bringuniformity to policing throughout thecountry.

The 1929 Royal Commission seemed toreject the unique status of the constable,stating: “A policeman, in the view of thecommon law, is only a person paid toperform, as a matter of duty, acts which ifhe were so minded, he might have donevoluntarily.”

However, the next year a judge restatedthe importance of the office of constable:“The powers of a constable, whetherconferred by statute law or common law,are exercised by him by virtue of his office,and cannot be exercised on theresponsibility of any person but himself. Aconstable, therefore, when acting as apeace officer, is not exercising a delegatedauthority, but an original authority.”

It was not until the Police Act 1964 thatthe chief officer was liable for the wrongfulacts of a constable of his force. This was so

that a citizen with a justifiable complaintcould obtain financial redress. It did notaffect the doctrine of a constable’sindividual responsibility for his actions.

In 1955, the Judicial Committee of thePrivy Council stated: “(The constable) is anofficer whose authority is original, notdelegated, and is exercised at his owndiscretion by virtue of his office: he is aministerial officer exercising statutoryrights independently of contract.”

The 1931 and 1955 judgements came tobe relied upon by chief constables whowished to assert their independence of theirpolice authorities when it came to theexercise of police powers.



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Since the modern policing began in1829 there have been fundamentalprinciples that defined thefunction and purpose of policing. Theseprinciples have evolved over the yearsbut the basics and core objectives havestood the passage of time.

The first principles were introduced by Sir Robert Peel. As Home Secretary, heintroduced a number of important reformsof British criminal law, most memorablyestablishing the Metropolitan Police Force

(Metropolitan Police Act 1829). Robert Peeldeveloped the ‘Peelian Principles’ whichdefined the ethical requirements policeofficers must follow in order to be effective.His most memorable principle was: “Thepolice are the public, and the public are thepolice.”

It is interesting to note that thefundamentals of policing have not changedover the centuries, as Sir Robert’s NinePoints of the Law demonstrate.

What are the principles of policing?

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1. The basic mission for which the policeexist is to prevent crime and disorder.

2. The ability of the police to perform theirduties is dependent upon public approvalof police actions.

3. Police must secure the willingcooperation of the public in voluntaryobservance of the law to be able tosecure and maintain the respect of thepublic.

4. The degree of co-operation of the publicthat can be secured diminishesproportionately to the necessity of theuse of physical force.

5. Police seek and preserve public favour notby catering to public opinion but byconstantly demonstrating absoluteimpartial service to the law.

6. Police use physical force to the extentnecessary to secure observance of the lawor to restore order only when the exerciseof persuasion, advice and warning isfound to be insufficient.

7. Police, at all times, should maintain arelationship with the public that givesreality to the historic tradition that thepolice are the public and the public arethe police; the police being only membersof the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are

incumbent on every citizen in theinterests of community welfare andexistence.

8. Police should always direct their actionstrictly towards their functions and neverappear to usurp the powers of thejudiciary.

9. The test of police efficiency is theabsence of crime and disorder, not thevisible evidence of police action in dealingwith it.

Sir Robert Peel’s nine principles of policing


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The Office of Constable - Police Federation of England and Wales · 2019. 6. 6. · Police officers...

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