A police authority in the United Kingdom, were localised panels charged with securing efficient and effective policing of a police area served by a territorial police force or the area and/or activity policed by a special police force. Separate arrangements existed for England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and for any force not created under one of those countries' national Police Acts (or equivalent for Northern Ireland) which had a matching police authority created.
Police Authorities were dissolved on 22 November 2012, and were replaced with directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners.
Read more about Police Authority: Northern Ireland, Special Police Forces
Famous quotes containing the words police and/or authority:
“We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the bootmaker.”
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)