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16 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1901)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry16 and id is 1 raw text is: SVMarc/, i9or. POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY. POLICE ADMINISTRATION. THE word police has a wide variety of meanings. Etymo- logically it signifies the entire public activity of the city- state; and in Germany to-day police administration includes the whole sphere of internal governmental administration. In a somewhat more limited sense, the word is used in the United States to indicate a sphere of governmental action that is definable only to this extent, that it excludes foreign relations and the economic functions of government. The police power of the American states extends to all matters that affect public order and the moral and physical health of the, com- munity. In this paper, however, the word police is used in its narrowest sense, to denote the special machinery for the pres- ervation of order and the prevention and detection of crime. This machinery is found more particularly in modern urban municipalities. It consists of an organized and disciplined force of men for the systematic patrol of the public ways and of special magistrates for dealing summarily with the large mass of minor cases which demand prompt decision. Such machinery in its present form is of recent origin; and, indeed, it is closely connected with the growth of densely popu- lated urban communities. In ancient Rome there was a sys- tematic police administration, at first under the control of the aediles, who date from the third century of the city; while under the Empire a more perfect organization was created. Volume X VI.] [ Number i.