police court
A court of summary jurisdiction for the trial or investigation of charges preferred by the police. (At first called police office.) Also attrib.
| 1823 Stark Picture of Edinb. (ed. 3) 152 An application was made to Parliament, in 1805, for a police bill for the city..and a police court [was] opened in Edinburgh, on 15 July 1805..under the superintendence of a Judge of Police. 1839 Act 2 & 3 Vict. c. 71 §1 The several police courts now established under the names of the public office in Bow Street and the police offices in the parishes of..[seven named]..shall be continued. 1882 W. Ballantine Exper. ii. 24 Police-courts were called offices [in the early part of this century]. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 29 Oct. 2/3 So far the latter have escaped police-court proceedings. 1930 D. H. Lawrence Nettles 19 And Mr. Mead..said: ‘Gross! coarse! hideous!’—and I, like a silly Thought he meant the faces of the police-court officials. 1964 [see form n. 16 c]. 1965 [see magistrate n. 3]. 1979 S. Weintraub London Yankees iv. 113 English readers discovered Frederic in the newspaper transcripts from Croydon Police Court in 1898. |