Policing in Great Nortend

Policeman standing next to a police call pillar.

Law enforcement in Great Nortend is undertaken by sworn police constables serving on a local parochial and hundred level. There is a national constabulary hierarchy formally answering to the Sheriff and thence to the King's Lieutenant of the county.

Constabularies Office

In practical terms, various constabularies formed under the Constabulary Act are organised on a county-by-county basis, under the political control of the King's Clerk who has responsibility over domestic security and law enforcement through the Under-Clerk for Constabularies who heads the Constabularies Office, a sub-office of the Clerk's Office. The Constabularies Office is the main liaison office between the Government and the Constabularies.

Ranks

Insignia	(No insignia)
Rank	Watchman	Under- Constable	Constable	Serjeant	Inspector	Intendent	Superintendent	High Constable	Tipstaff	Under- Commissioner	Commissioner
Abbreviation	Wchmn.	U. Cble.	Cble.	Sjt.	Insp.	Int.	Supt.	H. Cble.	Tip.	U. Cmmsr.	Cmmsr.

The Constabulary Act did not abolish the traditional offices of constable, high constable and sheriff who were the officers of the peace for a parish, hundred/borough and county respectively. Rather, it formalised the existing system of ad hoc deputies and deputies of deputies over several different recognised offices, titled watchmen, underconstables, beadles, bailiffs, undertipstaves and tipstaves. This ensured that all such officers of the peace had a constable's powers of the watch.

As such, any constable may exercise his statutory powers anywhere in Great Nortend. Furthermore, the Lady Constables Act permitted women to join a constabulary for the first time, with all of the statutory law-enforcement powers of male constables, albeit without certain regular law powers. Lady constables are, however, restricted to the ranks of watchman, underconstable, constable and beadle.

Uniform

Policemen wear undress as their ordinary uniform

As a civilian service, policemen wear blue standing-collar tunics for their daily operational uniform, with knee boots and overalls. They carry a whistle and a wooden truncheon, and most carry pistols. Many constabularies also have helmets as part of the police uniform, instead of the peaked cap. Instead of full dress or mess dress, civilian morning and evening dress are worn as appropriate.

Structure

Operational policing is undertaken by bodies of constables known as constabularies, each whereof independent of another. There are 52 regular constabularies and 30 special constabularies. Each has a particular territorial jurisdiction known as a constablewick. Most constabularies have a constablewick over an entire county. Some cities have their own independent constabularies.

The lowest level of police organisation is the individual police house, one of which is located in every parish. For small parishes, an Underconstable is in charge of a police house, which may also have more junior Watchmen. Most villages, however, are large enough to have an Constable or Serjeant in charge of the police house.

A subdivision is a small number of parishes clustered together commanded by an Intendent, assisted by Police and Detective Serjeants and Inspectors. A Superintendent is usually based in the largest village of the subdivision, where a police station is located. A division is a grouping of subdivisions corresponding to a hundred or a group of hundreds or a borough. It is commanded by the High Constable of the hundreds within the division. Most constabularies have around eight to ten divisions. Commissioners, Under-Commissioners and Tipstaves operate from the constabulary headquarters.

Each constabulary has a D. S. division (Detective Services division) and an S. S. division (Special Services division). The former is tasked with investigative and detective police work whilst the latter encompasses a variety of different branches such as the Dog Branch, the Mounted Branch, the Firearms Branch and the Security Branch.