Police Authorities
Police Authorities
Police authorities were the bodies which appointed the chief constable of a police force and supervised the force’s operations. In Scotland, these bodies were local authorities, until all Scottish police forces were merged into a single national police force in 2013.
In burghs before the 19th century the magistrates were responsible for maintaining law and order, and they were able to appoint constables or watchmen. In 1800, a local act of parliament for Glasgow enabled the appointment of police commissioners who were given responsibilities for ‘regulating the police and appointing watchmen’.[1] Following this, other local acts of parliament to improve burghs usually made provision for the election of police commissioners who could be the existing magistrates or a separate body. From 1847, towns which adopted the general police acts elected police commissioners.[2]After 1857 towns could prevent control of the burgh police going to the commissioners of supply of the county by claiming the right to be police burghs: these burghs, such as Stirling, created a body known as the commissioners of police, which sat alongside the town council and was made up of many of the same people.[3] Thus, until 1892, police commissioners could either be the magistrates and town council of the burgh or a separate body, depending on the method of adopting police powers. In 1892 only those burghs with 7000 or more inhabitants were allowed to keep their police forces, and new forces were restricted to burghs with a population of over 20,000.[4] Police commissioners were abolished in 1900 and replaced by a town council.[5] Thereafter responsibilities for police forces in burghs lay with the town council, which generally appointed a police committee to supervise the burgh police force.
In counties, police committees were generally set up after the commissioners of supply were empowered to set up police forces by the Rogue Money (Scotland) Act 1839.[6] This provided the funding for a constabulary and enabled commissioners of supply to unite with another county for this purpose. The Police (Scotland) Act 1857 required all counties which had not already done so to appoint a police committee made up of commissioners of supply, the lord lieutenant and the sheriff of the county and to appoint a police force.[7]
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 transferred the powers and duties of the police committees to standing joint committees composed of county councillors, commissioners of supply and the sheriff-principal.[8] Standing joint committees also had an important role in the administration of county finances: county councils wanting to borrow or undertake capital expenditure had to obtain their consent. They were abolished by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929.[9]
After 1929, many police forces were amalgamated and the police authorities therefore worked together in joint police committees made up of representatives from the local authorities within the boundaries of the amalgamated force. Under the Police (Scotland) Act 1967, police authorities were defined as the town council of burghs with police forces and the county council for counties, with the proviso that this was subject to any amalgamation scheme.[10] Joint police committees were constituted where police areas extended beyond a single local authority. Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the regional councils and islands councils became the police authorities, again subject to any amalgamation scheme.[11] In 1996 there was no change to the existing police areas and the police authorities were the new unitary councils, meeting as joint police committees.[12] The eight police authorities were replaced by the Scottish Police Authority in 2013.[13]
The records of police authorities before 1996 are held by local authority archives services. Records of some local police authorities after 1996 were transferred to the Scottish Police Authority.
Compilers: SCAN contributors (2000). Editors: Pam McNicol (Stirling Council Archives, 2021), Elspeth Reid (2021)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Police – County Constabularies
Police amalgamations and reorganisations
Police Chief Constable annual reports
Police Chief Constable letter books
Police correspondence files, case files & administrative files
Police instruction books & manuals
Police licensing and similar records
Police staff records or personnel records
Bibliography
Barrie, G., Police in the Age of Improvement: police development and the civic tradition in Scotland 1775-1865 (Willan, 2008)
Dinsmor, Alastair, and Robert H. J. Urquhart, ‘The Origins of Modern Policing in Scotland’ Scottish Archives, 7 (2001), pp. 36-44
Harrison, John G., ‘Policing the Stirling Area, 1660-1706’ Scottish Archives, 7 (2001), pp. 16-24
Stallion, Martin and David S. Wall, The British Police: Forces and Chief Officers 1829-2012 (Police History Society, 2011)
Stewart, Marion M., ‘A Policeman’s Lot: Police Records in Dumfries and Galloway, 1850-1950’ Scottish Archives, 7 (2001), pp. 25-35
References
[1] Glasgow City Extension and Improvement Act 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. III c.lxxxviii).
[2] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c.39)
[3] Police (Scotland) Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c.72).
[4] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c.55).
[5] Town Councils (Scotland) Act, 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c.49).
[6] Rogue Money (Scotland) Act 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. c.65).
[7] Police (Scotland) Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c.72).
[8] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.50).
[9] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V c.25).
[10] Police (Scotland) Act 1967 (c.77).
[11] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) s.146
[12] Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 (c.39) ss.34-35
[13] Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 (asp 8).