RSSPolice
Feb 14
Many of the regulatory powers of government involve some kind of policing activity. In the United States, for example, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is empowered to apprehend illegal aliens. The Customs Service can inspect anything imported into the country and may search for contraband. The Internal Revenue Service may use any means at its disposal to collect taxes and to prosecute those who fail to file income-tax returns. This article, however, deals with local, state, and national law-enforcement agencies normally described as police forces. The words police and politics are related. Both are derived from the Greek term for city-state and have to do with the administration and oversight of communities of people. Police operations vary from nation to nation. In some states police forces are highly militarized and nearly indistinguishable from the armed forces. Police are nonmilitary groups that have several basic functions. They patrol neighborhoods on foot or in automobiles, seeking by their presence to preserve public order and to discourage lawbreaking. They are in charge of traffic regulation, which means assuring a smooth flow of traffic as well as detaining drivers who break the rules of the road. Police departments are charged with controlling such commercial vice as prostitution, gambling, and narcotics peddling.