The Ministry of Residents and Immigration is hereby renamed the Home Office, and the Minister of Residents and Immigration is from now on known as the Home Secretary.
Act 29, Law 3 is hereby repealed. Every Town Council is hereby ordered to recruit police officers in order to set up a police force in their constituency to:
Enforce the Laws of Austenasia
Maintain public order
Arrest criminals
Protect the Cabinet and Imperial Family
All town’s police forces are collectively known as the Austenasian Police. The head of the Austenasian Police is the Chief Inspector, who will answer to the Home Secretary.
The Austenasian Police are hereby allowed to be given tax money in order to pay their police officers and buy equipment to help them achieve their purposes.
All police officers have the powers to:
Arrest people if they suspect that they have committed a crime
Control the public to a reasonable extent in order to maintain public order
All newly recruited police officers have the rank of Constable.
The police rank above Constable is that of Sergeant. Sergeants have the additional power (as well as those listed in Law 5 of this same Act) to keep a suspected criminal at a police station for up to 24 hours if more evidence is needed to successfully prove him/her guilty of that crime.
There must always be more Constables than Sergeants in a police force.
Each individual town’s police force will be headed by an Inspector (the rank above Sergeant). Inspectors have the additional power (as well as those listed in Law 5 of this same Act) to authorise police officers to search a building for illegal items or suspected criminals and to keep a suspected criminal at a police station for up to 36 hours if more evidence is needed to successfully prove him/her guilty of that crime.
After being a Constable for two years, a police officer may apply for promotion to Sergeant from the Inspector of that police force.
All Inspectors answer to the Chief Inspector. If an Inspector retires, dies or is relieved from duty, then the Chief Inspector will choose another from amongst the Sergeants of that police force.
Every police force must also have officers in a Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The responsibilities of an officer in the CID differ from those of a standard police officer, in that CID officers are responsible for investigation of crimes that require complex detection to find out who committed them – acting upon intelligence received and then building a case, from analysis of the initial incident through to arrest of any suspects.
Officers in a CID have the same ranks as standard officers, but have the prefix “Detective” – Detective Constable, Detective Sergeant and Detective Inspector.
Every police force must have more standard police officers than CID officers.
The Chief Inspector will be chosen by the Home Secretary out of the Inspectors of the Austenasian Police.
Chief Inspectors will upon appointment be knighted by the Emperor a Member of the Austenasian Order. If an appointed Chief Inspector already has a knighthood in the Austenasian Order, then they will be awarded instead with the next highest one. If they are an Imperial Knight of the Austenasian Order, then they will instead be awarded with a Distinguished Service Cross. If the Emperor refuses to bestow any of these honours, then the Home Secretary must appoint a different Chief Inspector.
The Chief Inspector may refuse the honour automatically bestowed by Law 16 of this same Act (that obviously means that there will be no risk of the Emperor refusing to bestow the honour and a different Chief Inspector being chosen). If they do so however, then they will only hold the post of Chief Inspector temporarily, for three years.