Chief Constable

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Chief Constable is the title given to the commanding officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except the two responsible for Greater London. The population of areas for which chief constables are responsible varies from a few hundred thousand to two or three million. A chief constable has no superior officer, but is responsible to the local police authority.

The title is a derived from the original local parish constables of the eighteenth century and earlier. Constable and Constabulary were terms adopted in an attempt to provide a historical link with the older forces and to emphasise local control. Much of the debate about policing in the early nineteenth century (when modern police forces were introduced in Britain) concerned fears that the new forces might become paramilitary agents of central government control. To this day other British police ranks, such as Inspector and Superintendent, are determinedly non-paramilitary – only Police Sergeants hold a quasi-military rank and even then the term Sergeant had long existed as a non-military officer of subordinate rank.

The Chief Constable's badge of rank, worn on the epaulettes, consists of crossed tipstaves in a wreath, surmounted by a crown.

The Chief Constable is assisted by a Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) and one or more Assistant Chief Constables (ACC). The Chief Constable, DCC and ACCs are collectively known as the "Chief Officers" of a force and belong to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

[edit] Metropolitan Police

In London, the Metropolitan Police (formed in 1829) and the City of London Police (formed in 1839) are led by Commissioners rather than Chief Constables. This resulted from a fear of politicians gaining control of the police – in 1829 two justices of the peace were appointed to head the new Metropolitan Police, later reduced to one. Until the 1970s, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis was technically not a police officer at all, but a Justice of the Peace, who thus held a commission of the peace.

In 1869, the divisions of the Metropolitan Police were grouped into four Districts, and four new officers called District Superintendents were appointed to command them, ranking between the Divisional Superintendents and the two Assistant Commissioners. These officers were to be generally military officers, civil servants or lawyers who were directly appointed to the rank. This caused a certain amount of concern, since some saw it as the creation of an "officer class" for the police, which had always been resisted.

In 1886, the rank of District Superintendent was renamed Chief Constable, as it was decided that it could be confused with the Divisional Superintendents. Unlike their superiors, Chief Constables were actually sworn into the office of constable. A fifth Chief Constable was later created in the Criminal Investigation Department. The rank became junior to the new rank of Deputy Assistant Commissioner in 1919.

In 1933, the Districts were taken over by Deputy Assistant Commissioners, with the Chief Constables remaining as their deputies. In 1946, the rank was renamed Deputy Commander.

The rank badge of a Metropolitan Police Chief Constable consisted of crossed tipstaves in a wreath.