Sir Robert Peel (UK politician, prime minister and prison reformer, 1788-1850) established the first Metropolitan (that is, London) police force, based at Scotland Yard, and reportedly developed the Peelian Principles. How do you think your State police force, or the Australian Federal Police, measure up to these principles?
How do your police measure up?
Sir Robert Peel (UK politician, prime minister and prison reformer, 1788-1850) established the first Metropolitan (that is, London) police force, based at Scotland Yard, and reportedly developed the Peelian Principles. How do you think your State police force, or the Australian Federal Police, measure up to these principles?
In his principles, Peel states:
- Every police officer should be issued a badge number, to assure accountability for his actions.
- Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of crime.
- Above all else, an effective authority figure knows trust and accountability are paramount. Hence, Peel’s most often quoted principle: The police are the public and the public are the police.
The Police Principles, developed by Sir Robert Peel are:
- The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder;
- The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
- Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
- The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
- Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
- Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
- Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
- Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
- The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.