The Police Department shall have the power and its duty shall be to perform the following functions:

(a) Law Enforcement. It shall preserve the public peace, prevent and detect crime, police the streets and highways and enforce traffic statutes, ordinances and regulations relating thereto. The Department shall at all times aid in the administration and enforcement within the City of the statutes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the ordinances of the City.

(b) Maintenance of the Philadelphia Police. The Department shall train, equip, maintain, supervise and discipline the Philadelphia Police.

(c) Police Signal System. The Department shall operate a police signal system either as a separate system or in conjunction with the fire alarm system of the Fire Department.

ANNOTATION

Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article V, Sections 3 and 5, as amended.

Purposes: 1. The number of personnel engaged in police work, the importance to the general welfare and safety of an adequate and competent police force, and the absence of any vital relationship between police functions and fire functions, indicate the necessity for separate departments of police and fire. See Section 5-400. For similar reasons, functions of the former Department of Public Safety not directly related to police or fire work have been transferred to other departments. See Sections 5-500, 5-900 and 5-1002. These include operations of the electrical bureau and functions of building safety inspection and enforcement.

2. The primary function of the Police Department is law enforcement and this includes the enforcement of City ordinances and the enforcement of State laws operative within the City.

3. The training, equipment, maintenance, supervision and discipline of the Philadelphia Police is expressly provided for because each of these is a necessary prerequisite of an adequate and competent police force.

4. The Police Department is authorized to maintain either a separate police signal system or one in conjunction with fire alarm system of the Fire Department so that one or the other of such systems may be employed, depending on which will be the more efficient for police purposes under varying conditions. See Sections 5-400(e) and 5-900(a)(2).