Policing in Great Nortend

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.

Organisation

Ranks

Insignia	(No insignia)
Rank	Watchman	Underconstable	Constable	Inspector	Senior Inspector	Station Officer	Intendent	Superintendent	Commander	Constable General
Abbreviation	Wchmn.	U. Cble.	Cble.	Insp.	S. Insp.	S. O.	Int.	Supt.	Cmdr.	C. Gen.
Office	Watchman	Underconstable	Constable	Beadle	—	—	—	High Constable	Undertipstaff	Tipstaff
Closest Army equivalent	Private	Able Private	Corporal	Serjeant	Staff Serjeant	Warranted Officer	Ensign	Lieutenant	Captain	Major

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 to these legally recognised office holders (titled subunderconstables, underconstables, underbeadles, beadles, undertipstaves and tipstaves) into a system of statutory ranks. This ensured that deputy officers of the peace were in fact substantive constables themselves.

A 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 subunderconstable, underconstable, constable, underbeadle and beadle.

Structure

Operational policing is undertaken by bodies of constables known as constabularies, each whereof being independent of another, but located in the same hierarchy. 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 a given 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 in charge of the police house.

A subdivision is a small number of parishes clustered together commanded by an Intendant, assisted by Police and Detective Inspectors. The Indendant 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 a Superintendent (who is High Constable of all of the hundreds within the division), assisted by Police and Detective Senior Inspectors. Most constabularies have around eight to ten divisions. A Commander and Constable General operate from the constabulary headquarters. The Commander takes operational command of the constabulary, assisted by the adjutant.

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.