The Collaborative International Dictionary
Police power \Police power\ (Law) The inherent power of a government to regulate its police affairs.
Note: The term police power is not definitely fixed in
meaning. In the earlier cases in the United States it
was used as including the whole power of internal
government, or the powers of government inherent in
every sovereignty to the extent of its dominions (
--11
Peters (U. S.) 102). The later cases have excepted from
its domain the development and administration of
private law. Modern political science defines the power
as a branch of internal administration in the exercise
of which the executive should move within the lines of
general principles prescribed by the constitution or
the legislature, and in the exercise of which the most
local governmental organizations should participate as
far as possible (
--Burgess). Under this limitation the
police power, as affecting persons, is the power of the
state to protect the public against the abuse of
individual liberty, that is, to restrain the individual
in the exercise of his rights when such exercise
becomes a danger to the community. The tendency of
judicial and popular usage is towards this narrower
definition.
Wiktionary
n. (context legal English) The inherent power, incident to sovereignty, of a state to regulate and exercise reasonable control over matters of public health, public morals, public safety, and in general, all things relating to the general welfare.
Wikipedia
In United States constitutional law, police power is the capacity of the states to regulate behavior and enforce order within their territory for the betterment of the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of their inhabitants. Under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the powers not delegated to the Federal Government are reserved to the states or to the people. This implies that the Federal Government does not possess all possible powers, because most of these are reserved to the State governments, and others are reserved to the people.
Police power is exercised by the legislative and executive branches of the various states through the enactment and enforcement of laws. States have the power to compel obedience to these laws through whatever measures they see fit, provided these measures do not infringe upon any of the rights protected by the United States Constitution or in the various state constitutions, and are not unreasonably arbitrary or oppressive. Methods of enforcement can include legal sanctions, physical means, and other forms of coercion and inducement. Controversies over the exercise of police power can arise when its exercise by the federal government conflicts with the rights of the states, or when its exercise by federal or state authorities conflicts with individual rights and freedoms.
Police power may refer to:
- Police power (United States constitutional law)
-
Law enforcement agency powers
-
Powers of the police in the United Kingdom
- Powers of the police in England and Wales
- Powers of the police in Scotland
- Police child protection powers in the United Kingdom
-
Powers of the police in the United Kingdom
Usage examples of "police power".
Baxter Slate had always believed implicitly in limited police power, due process, the jury system.
If you have warrants for anyone present, or have taken them by lawful police power, take them and leave these premises.
Moczar would come out strongly for proof and he wouldn't get it because I hadn't got it but the aim would be to convince him that he couldn't take the risk by throwing me back into detention: he'd be smart enough to know that even a fragment of evidence against the head of the police power could be worth a lot to the officer responsible for my safekeeping if I took a crack at trading it in for an arranged escape.
Every cop knew the most flagrant abuses of police power occurred when cops turned on their own.
It's a discreet green Saab with a POLICE POWER sticker on the left side of the bumper and one reading HUGS NOT DRUGS on the right.
They do not reveal motivation, which in this person's case, like that of his ancestor Anne Bonny, is to have control, adventure, and access to military and police power, and to know the rules well enough to break them whenever he pleases.
The Act of 2031 did take away our police power, it's true -- in the jurisdictions of the States.
When Theodore recently announced that we have an obligation, somehow, inherently, through the Monroe Doctrine, to punish 'chronic wrongdoers' in South America, as well as 'to the exercise of an international police power,' I nearly dropped dead over my breakfast egg.
Rumor had it that Millard Parlette was drafting new laws to further restrict police power.