Task 11. Read and translate the text. Police Duties

The main functions of police in any country are to prevent crime, preserve the public peace and to protect persons and property. A police officer usually works one of three eight-hour shifts. He or she begins the tour of duty with a roll call, during which the superior officer gives the day’s instructions, including information on wanted criminals.

If on foot patrol, officers will start their rounds, watching people, places of business, and motor vehicle traffic. They will give information to many people who stop to ask directions. If they are on patrol car duty, they will do much the same thing. The radio in the patrol car will bring them orders to go to places where there is reported trouble. Such trouble may range from a bank robbery to stopping a fight or to picking up a stray¹ dog from the street.

One of the functions of the police is to stop “something-that-ought-not-to-be-happening-and-about-which-someone-had-better-do-something-now”². Police interrupt and handle situations of potential or ongoing conflict.

The most common, as well as the most difficult, conflict situations police handle are disputes within families. Police believe that family disputes are very dangerous and risky to them, although this is not quite true. Police officers are most likely to be killed or injured in auto accidents, dealing with armed robberies or arresting persons carrying concealed weapons.

Disputes are not the only situations in which the police are called upon to intervene. People come to the police with all sorts of urgent problems, hoping they will be able to help. Such calls require service, not force or law enforcement. In the United States requests of this kind are referred to as “cats-in-a-tree” situations and in Australia as “frogs-in-the-drain” cases.

Besides regular patrol work, police duties include at one extreme riot control, and at the other crime prevention. In large cities the police are sometimes called in to control or break up large groups of political demonstrators or protestors. Such incidences usually make the police unpopular, since violence inevitably takes place.

In order to help prevent crime it is important for local police officers to establish contact with people in the communities in which they work. This is often done by encouraging them to visit schools and people’s homes to advise on home security and safety and get to know individual members of the community. People in many towns have adopted “neighbourhood watch schemes” where neighbours are encouraged to get together, observe what goes on in their locality and alert the police if anything unusual is seen.

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¹stray /streI/ – бездомный, бродячий

²”something-that-ought-not-to-be-happening-and-about-which-someone-had-better-do-something-now” – “то-что-не-должно-происходить-и-по-поводу-чего-кто-нибудь-лучше-бы-сделал-что-нибудь-прямо-сейчас”

Task 12. Find the English equivalents for the following word combinations; memorize them.

1. охранять общественный покой

2. восьмичасовая смена

3. начинать круг обязанностей с чего-либо

4. перекличка; проверка личного состава

5. информация о преступниках, разыскиваемых полицией

6. иметь при себе оружие, на ношение которого нет разрешения

7. делать кого-либо непопулярным

8. принимать программы наблюдения за районом проживания

9. собираться, объединяться

10. предупреждать полицию