Many people know of the police officers of today’s world and that it is their job to enforce the laws set by their government, but not many people know the history of your typical everyday United States police officer or how they came about. The idea for neither your everyday police officer nor his or her department they work for or how a police department operates, originated in the United States. Over the years though America has made changes and adapted its system over the years to make it more suitable for its countries beliefs and practices.
Police forces or Law enforcers have been used for centuries all around the world but America took particular interest in the English’s policing system. America’s policing ideas and process began
…show more content…
It was a safe haven for bandits and outlaws, it was so large and unknown, making in near impossible to enforce the laws of the land. Taking the law into one’s own hands or vigilantism was common for those trying to take advantage of the spread out hand of the law throughout the United States. In America’s larger cities law enforcement came about earlier. In 1658, paid watchmen were hired by the city of New York. The city of New York constructed the first neighborhood station in 1731. Many American communities followed their lead. New York’s Law enforcement was separated into night and day forces, hired to be like the “Bobbies”, they were combined into the New York Police Department. The first woman police officer came from the Los Angela’s Police Department in 1910; her name was Alice Stebbins Wells. By 1915 a U.S. census showed that there were 25 cities that employed police officers of the female gender. The Postal Act of 1829 made the FBI a national investigation service. Before that is was the Bureau of Investigation, where President Teddy Roosevelt promoted the use of the call-box system of telephones. It allowed citizens to report crimes and made it possible for officers to quickly call for assistance. A dark day and age for not only the American people but also the American Law Enforcement agency began in the 1920’s when there was a constitutional prohibition against the selling,
Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2014). Policing in america (8th ed.). (S. Decker-Lucke, Ed.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved January 2017
In the United States, there are city, county, state, and national police forces. They have very difficult and dangerous responsibilities. These public servants are required to perform many different jobs. They enforce laws and maintain order. They teach people how to help prevent crime and to protect themselves ( Mittleman, 2000). They offer assistance and take charge of many different situations such as car accidents, flooding, and hurricanes. Police
There are many factors that contribute to today’s American policing. Once such factor that contribute tremendously to today’s policing came in 1829 when Sir Robert Peel’s concept of policing came into effect. This would change the way policing would be performed in not only England, but the United States (U.S) and around the world. Another huge factor that impacts policing is the relationship the U.S. Government has with policing. These factors affect every policing organization in the U.S.
In the last three decades, several concepts have been advanced to organize efforts to improve policing. Among them have been team policing, neighborhood policing, community policing, zero-tolerance policing and problem-oriented policing. Herman Goldstein was the first to propose problem-oriented policing in 1979. Problem-oriented policing is a policing strategy that involves the identification and analysis of specific crime and disorder problems, in order to develop effective response strategies in conjunction with ongoing assessment. The emphasis in problem-oriented policing is on directing attention to the broad range of problems the community expects the police to handle–the problems that constitute the business of the police and on
Policing has been a part of America for many decades. In fact, policing was known to exist prior to 1066, the year of the Normandy Invasion of Britain. Throughout the years policing has been a complicated and ongoing progress. The people of England did not have a stabilized policing standard and were often responsible for protecting and serving themselves. As early as the 1600s the Colonial America introduced the English styles of policing; citizens were responsible for monitoring community members’ behavior. Early constables and sheriffs were with the increased rate of crime and developed a ‘sort’ in community policing known as “watch and ward.” Later throughout history in the early 1700s policing became an
Policing dates back thousands of years to even before the Roman times. The origins of American policing are closely related the Anglo-Saxon model which gave a more communal responsibility. The four Eras’ of American policing that will be focused on are The Political, Professional, Community Policing, and Homeland Security.
The role of police officers is very significant to American history. Police work toward protecting citizens’ rights and helping America become the land of the free. The United States of America is built from the U.S. Constitution Bill of Rights and police play a major role in making sure American rights are met. Evolution has changed many of American history for the better; policing is part of those changes. As new issues in society arise, police must change and adapt to protect and serve the public.
Sir Robert Peel, known as the ‘father’ of modern policing, set the foundation for organization and structure in modern day policing in London. The United States followed behind shortly thereafter to enlist a police force for order, organization, and service. Peel set up “Peel’s Nine Principals” which the United States still abides by to this day. The ‘father’ of policing has helped our government to overcome harsh judgment, corruption, and harsh actions, and has made it possible for citizens of this society to bond with local law enforcement. This has allowed our law enforcement to handle situations appropriately and incorporate bigger agencies to handle more diverse problems throughout the
The topic of police in general, and the brutal beatings, shootings, and arrests that have occurred over the past couple of years in the United States has hit the media full force, leaving many wondering what actions should be taken to keep the peace. Many question the system as a whole, and the training police officers receive, as well as their mental health. Across the borders, police are trained differently and follow various policies that may seem ridiculous or foreign, however, when comparing and contrasting two police systems, the similarities may be alarming, and the differences may be great, but knowing the strengths and weakness of each different system, can help towards progressing to have a better system and better training for police officers.
Police Departments are continuing to evolve to try to stay ahead if the criminal. Police technology is most influential changes relative to modern policing. Police agencies are using modern technology such as internet to convey information to the public, smart phones with the capacity to communicate with others from the field, and mobile computers to retrieve information, (Grant & Terry, 2012). Because police officers have mobile computers while in the field,
Policing in America can be traced back to the 1700’s at a time when slave patrols were beginning to form. According to Kappeler (2014), “In 1704, the colony of Carolina developed the nation’s first slave patrol. Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property.” While slave patrols were dominating in the Southern colonies, night watch men were the police force in the northern colonies. They were charged with keeping order, watching out for fires and keeping charge of slaves, in addition slave patrols were responsible for capturing and returning runaway slaves and ensuring they did not revolt. In the 1800’s slave patrols and night watchmen merged into modern day policing. The first police department in the U.S was established in 1845 in New York City (Cole, Smith, and DeLong, 2014).
Since the founding of this country, to the wild west, and up to the present, the agenda of the policing bodies have been clear: to uphold and enforce the laws of our society. Of course the way they do this today had undergone changes from the first police forces of early America, law enforcement has seen trends come and go.
The dictionary definition of the police is “the organized civil force of a state, concerned with maintenance of law and order, the detection and prevention of crime, etc,” (Collins English Dictionary, 2002). This definition states the minimum of what the police actually do. Providing support for families, protecting society from criminals and responding to calls 24 hours a day 7 days a week are just some of the other roles that police have to deal with. In this essay the evolution of the police will be discussed as well as how the police are facing challenges.
The history of law enforcement originates from English origin with the London Police Department. Sir Robert Peele enacted policies to improve policing. The London Police Department was militaristic in its ways and set the ground work for what we know of law enforcement today. The United States followed the British models and county sheriffs collected taxes and supervised elections. The first American form of law enforcement began with the Night watchmen, which were not well received (Fix, 2016).
Thank you for reading and responding to my post. This week is dealing with modern day police issues. Many shootings, police corruption, brutality, and so forth. I wanted to highlight that many of modern day police issues pre-existed, but with one difference. In modern day the police, on the opposite side of the batons, shootings and brutality. In all what is going on in modern day police incidents is terrible.