The Police forces of United Kingdom is basically divided into two sections such as the Greater London’s Metropolitan Police service and the City of London Police. The British Police Hierarchy is organized in accordance with the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829. We will talk about the Metropolitan police in details.
About Metropolitan Police
The metropolitan police force is the territorial police force handling the greater London. The Metropolitan police service deals in various significant activities such as coordinating on the counter-terrorism matters of the country and the protection of the British royal family. The metropolitan police service is headed by the Commissioner.
There are four main directories of the Metropolitan Police, each with specific roles and responsibilities. The directories are:
- Territorial Policing
- Specialist Crime and Operations Directorate
- Specialist Operations
- Administration and Support
Each directorate is handled by an Assistant Commissioner.
The British Police Hierarchy of the metropolitan police is as follows, starting from the higher grade to the lower grades:
- Commissioner: The Commissioner is the head of the Metropolitan Police Service. The Commissioner is appointed for a period of five years under the Police Act 1996. The post is accountable to the Home Secretary and MPA, chaired by Mayor of London and must answer to the public nationality.
- Deputy Commissioner: The Deputy Commissioner is the second-in-command of the Metropolitan Police Service.
- Assistant Commissioner: This is the third highest rank. There were four distinctions of the Assistant Commissioners such as ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘L’. The Assistant Commissioner ‘A’ handles the operations and administration section. ‘B’ handles the traffic section. ‘C’ handles the criminal investigation department and the Assistant Commissioner ‘D’ handles the Personnel and Training section ad is responsible for recruitment, welfare and departmental communications.
- Deputy Assistant Commissioner: This is the rank between Assistant Commissioner and Commander.
- Commander: The Commander is a rank common to both the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police. In both the police forces, the rank is senior to Chief Superintendent.
- Chief Superintendent: This is the sixth position of the Police Hierarchy. This post is senior to a Superintendent and junior to a Commander. The badge for this post is a single crow over one pip.
- Superintendent: The rank of Superintendent is above the Chief Inspector and below the Chief Superintendent. The badge of this rank is a crown worn on the epaulettes.
- Chief Inspector: A Chief Inspector is senior to an Inspector and is junior to a Superintendent. They perform a variety of functions on the basis of the different types of forces.
- Inspector: The Inspector is the second supervisory rank. The inspectors are directly concerned with the day to day policing.
- Sergeant: Sergeant is the first supervisory rank. The rank is senior to that of Constable and junior to that of Inspector. The Sergeants mainly supervise a group of constables and assigns duties to them.
- Police Constable: The Police Constable post is junior to Sergeant and senior to the Special Constable. The Police constables supervise the work of Special constables.
- Special Constable: The Special Constables were appointed to act on special occasions, public gatherings and in case of any riots etc.