POLICE

Police la the function of that llranch of the ndml,nlstintlve mach-1nery of covernment which 1s charged with the preserva'.tlon of public order and tranquUllty, the promotion of the public health, safety, and morals, and the prevention, detection. and punishment of crimes. See State v., Hine, 59 Conn. 50, 21 Atl. 1024, IQ L. R. A. 83; Monell v. Jones, 10 Smedes & M. (Mi .) 247; People v. Squire,. 107 N. Y. 593, 14 N. E. 820, 1 A.in- St. Rep. 893; Logan v. State, 5 Tex. App, 814. The police of a state, in a comprehensive sense, embraces its whole system of internal regulation, by which the state seeks not only to preserve the public order and · to prevent of• fenses against the state, but also to establish for the intercourse of citizen with citizen those rul~s of good manners and good neighborhood which are calculated to prevent a conflict of rights, and to in.sure to each the uninterrupted enjoyment of his own, so far as is reasonably consistent with a like enjoyment of rights by ethers. Cooley, Const. Lim. *572. It is defined by Jeremy Bentham in his works: •Police is in general a system of precaution. either for the prevention of crime or of calami~ie~. Its busine may be. distributed into eight d1stmct branches: (1) Pohce for the prevention of offenses; (2) police for the prevention of calami_ties_; (3) police fo! the pr,ev_!c!ntion of epidermc diseases; (4) pohce of chanty; (5) police of interior communications; (6) police of public amusements; (7) police for recent intelligence· (8) police for registration." Canal Com'rs v'. Willamette Transp. Co., 6 Or. 222. -Police court, The name of a kind of inferior.court in several of the states which has a summary jurisdiction over minor ~ffenses and misdemeanors of small consequence, and the powers of a committing magistrate in respect to more serious crimes, and, in _some states, a limited j)lrisdiction for the trial of civil causes. -In ~nghsh law. Courts in;which stipendiary magistrates, chosen from barnsters of a certain standing sit for the dispatch of busine . Their 1.general auties and powers are the same as those of the unpaid magistracy, except that one of them may usually act in cases which would re• -quire to be heard before two other justices Wharton.-Police de charge ment. Fr. I~ Fre~ch law. A bill of lading. Ord. Mar. liv. 3, ~1t. ~.-Police jury, in Louisiana, is the -des1gnat1on of the board of officers in a parish corresponding to the commi ioners or superv!sors of a cou!ltY in other states.-P1;1lice justice. • A magistrate charged exclusively with the duties incident to the common-law office of a conservator or justice of the peace; the prefix "police" serving merely to distinguish them from justices having also civil jurisdiction. Wenzler v. People, 58 N. Y. 530.-Police mag- ·istrate. See MAGISTRATE.-Police officer, One of the staff of men employed in cities and towns to enforce the municipal police, i. e., the laws and ordinances for preserving the peace and good order of the community.. Otherwise called "policeman."-Police _poweT. The power vested in a state to establish laws and ordina~ces for the regulation and enforcement of its pohce as above defined. The power vested in the legislature to make, ordain, and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable laws statu~es, and ordinances, either with penaltie; or without, not repugnant to the constitution as they shall ju"dge to be for the good and wel: fare of thE: commonwealth, and of the subjects -of the same._ Com. v. Alger, 7 Cush. (Ma .) 85. The po!Jce power of the state is an authority conferred by the American constitutional system upon the individual states, through which they are enabled to establish a special department of police; adopt such regulations as tend [s. 915]