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A Constable refers to a front line officer or member of the Police force in Britain and some countries with a British colonial history, which adopted a Britsh system of policing. This gives rise to the alternative name of Constabulary for the Police force.
In the USA, the equivalent position to constable would be a patrol officer.
In British law and similar legal systems, a Constable has the legal powers of arrest given to him directly by a sworn oath and warrant, rather than being delegated powers that he has simply because he is employed as a Police officer. Technically this means that each sworn Constable is an independent legal official rather than simply an employee of the Police.
In many police forces, the rank of Constable is the lowest rank of a trained police officer. Though the rank of Senior Constable can sometimes mean the head of the police force in an area this is not the case in the UK. The rank of Chief Constable or in the Metropolitain Police in London, Commissioner is used to describe the head of the police force.
Other Police ranks include:
Also the additional identification of Detective is normally added for those who are involved in plainclothes investigating of more serious crimes rather than just uniform policing and is used as a prefix up to Chief Superintendent, for example Detective Inspector, Detective Constable, etc.
The title listed above each officer still only has the powers of constable: Section 30 of The Police Act 1996 "A member of a police force shall have all the powers and privileges of a constable throughout England and Wales and the adjacent United Kingdom waters".
Countries using this system of naming police officers, include:
In the United States, a constable is charged with "process serving": serving summonses for people to appear in court on criminal and/or civil matters. Often this service is performed by private companies, except for some states like Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Alabama, Pennsylvania and some others where the Constable is an elected position at the village, precinct or township level of local governments where they serve the local municipal/minor courts or justice of the peace. (In Pennsylvania, the constable is considered a locally elected state court officer as all courts are part of the state court system.) In these states, Constables sometimes also perform other duties normally required of law enforcement at a county level excercising the same duties of a sheriff but over a smaller jurisdiction. In Texas, Arizona and other states, the village or town constable may be called a marshal.
In the United States, Constables may be assisted by Deputy Constables as sworn officers and Constable's Officers as civil staff, usually process servers. Other states also have civilian process servers who are constables.
In Jersey and Guernsey, the elected heads of the parishes are titled constables or (connétables in French). In Jersey, the constables also represent their parish in the legislature.
A courtier in some European countries during the Middle Ages, in charge of keeping the horses of his lord. The title comes from Latin “comes stabulari” (count of the stables).
In some countries this developed into a high military rank. See, for example, Bertrand du Guesclin, Constable of France; and the Lord High Constable of England.
The office 'constable' was held by the person in charge of the defence of a castle. Even today, there is a Constable of the Tower of London.