History of Police
History of Police
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.
Early American policing strategies were based on the British model. Law enforcement was not organized until 1200 A.D. offenders were pursued by an organized posse. If offenders were caught they
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New technology and social reform for policing happened in the twentieth century. This brought about the first woman police officer. The invention of automobiles, telephones, and radios was also developed, which helped police officers in a major way. Automobiles allowed police a quick responds and allowed them to serve bigger areas. Radios allowed better communication between police officers. Telephones allowed better communication between officers and civilians. Teddy Roosevelt help promote the first call box system, which is compared to the 911 system used today; also he helped organize the FBI, one of the most famous government agencies. The history of policing is divided into four periods. The political era (1840s-1930) was the first, police agencies were more concerned with the interest of powerful politicians. The second era (1930s-1970s) police were more concerned with solving traditional crimes. Today the third period is used in contemporary policing, which deal with community policing. Last is the homeland security era, which grew after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. All levels of law enforcement agencies have devoted more time and effort for homeland security after the attack.
A variety of police agencies to enforce the law is created by local, state, and federal law enforcement. Federal law enforcement agency is “A U.S government agency or office whose primary functional responsibility is to enforce
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.
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,
Police officers have played a major role in society by protecting us from crime. Their responsibilities include not only preserving the peace, preventing criminal acts, enforcing the law, investigating crimes, and arresting those who violate the law but also directing traffic, community relations work, and controlling crowds at public events.
Policing today consists of three eras. These three eras have adapted and built off one another through history (Parr, 2014). The first era started around 1840 to 1930, and is known as the Political Era. The second Era is known as the Reform Era and lasted from 1930 to 1970. The last era is called the Community-Problem Solving Era and is still being adapted and used today. The Political Era emphasizes on meeting the needs of politicians. The police were given power through the local government and the community had very little say in what happened. The police and politicians worked together to control the city and neighborhoods (Palmiotto, 2000). This was often referred to as a ward. The ward politician controlled all the police in their neighborhood. The police officers tasks included not only crime prevention and order but a lot of social service activities that involved their neighborhoods. The officers resembled the ethnic backgrounds of the neighborhoods they lived and worked in and performed their patrols gaining trust from their community (Palmiotto, 2000). This allowed positive integration of police officers leading to more public service, and the trust of the officers to stop crime when is starts.
Starting In 1829, Sir Robert Peel began developing his theory of policing. These nine principles are as relevant today as they were in the 1800's. Peel established the Metropolitan Police when he served as Home Secretary of England. Since Sir Robert Peel introduced his principles of policing in the early 1800's, our country has continued to follow his ideas of effective policing. Community policing is based on Peel's concept of prevention.
Police in America began as the night watch system that protected cities from crime, fire, and disorder. Of course early policing was influenced by the British, and so was American Law which derived from English common law. This would also form a correlation to American policing policies that diverged from the English’s Magna Carta and as well the French. The French established a centralized government that entailed men to take an oath of loyalty. The police in America started as night watch groups, then employment changed to police officers being political appointed which was very corrupted, but throughout the years things changed again to serve the public. Instead of a political selected police force that earns it’s pay through bribes and
Since the beginning years of American history and basically every other country has been kept safe by the police or police type department. In the United States, there are three levels of law enforcement, there is the Federal level, the State level, and the Local level. The levels of law enforcement have various duties but most duties are very similar. Every day in the field is very different. The job can also be extremely stressful, and law enforcement professionals need specific training to succeed. A career in law enforcement is a secure job to have because crime never stops. What is law enforcement? It is a system where members of society perform in such manner to enforce laws by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing the members of society who violate the laws that protect society. In other words “The generic name for the activities of the agencies responsible for maintaining public order and enforcing the law, particularly the activities of prevention, detection, and investigation of crime and the apprehension of criminals” (BJS).
Police Academy and policing are some of the most controversial things in today 's world. This particularly pertains to our society, in which it seems that there is a different incident involving the police every week. It is extremely controversial, the media uses its power of manipulation to “expose” the police often abusing their power. This is leading to a division of our nation. There is a large clash of who 's to blame in this situation, we can even see this in class based on the various opinions of my fellow students.Some of my classmates and many others blame things like police academy, methods of policing, and the cultural separation between police and the community. I interviewed somebody who lived through both. He was in the police force for 21 years and continued on to teach and direct police academy for 25 years.
Police Agencies in modern society are a part of the American fabric to serve and protect the American public. The United States currently have more than 15,000 police agencies, (Walker & Katz, 2011). Police Departments across the United States face similar critical issues policing. All police officers face dangers in the job of policing the dangers can emanate from internal and external origins. Police officers have continued to evolve to serve communities by finding better less than lethal alternatives to weapons used. In addition, police departments have continued to keep up with
The principle role of police organizations is to uphold and enforce the law. Police organizations achieve this by safeguarding life and property, maintaining public order, and through detecting and preventing crime. Policing at the state level is composed of separate police organizations. At the state level we have the City or Local Police, County Sheriff and State Police, also known as Highway Patrol or State Troopers. The U.S. government gives each state the authority to self-govern so each state has its own Penal Codes and every state policing organization follows its own Penal Code. Policing at the Federal level is composed of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Federal policing agencies oversee all federal laws.
Law enforcement, in some form, has existed for centuries and since its creation there has been numerous improvements. Improvements have come about because of community changes and the need for more effective ways of policing the people. As crimes became more fierce and complex so did the need for the investigation and solving of these crimes. Criminal investigative techniques were not just born from thin air, some thought and planning had to go into figuring out the proper ways to go about doing things. Pioneers of the criminal justice and criminal investigation field such as August Vollmer, Alphonse Bertillon, Edward Henry, and Edmond Locard have made superior contributions to the development of criminal investigative techniques. These techniques have impacted the way police operate today and set a substantial base for law enforcement to build on.
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.
In today's society the police, play may roles. They are the peacekeepers, law enforcement and many other jobs. However, recently they have become the subject of a very heated and large debate. Many believe that the police should give up their brute type tactics for a more civilized and humanized approach, while others feel that the police should crack down on the most insignificant of offences to type and disparage crimes that are more serious. In this paper, we will be analyzing both sides of this issue, from the look of the police administration to the public's view of it. When we mention today's police force we will be using the New York City police force as are basis of comparison, because they seem to
When we think of the police, we normally think of the brave men and women out on the street, enforcing the law, catching criminals, helping out the public in cases of emergency and making us feel safe in general. Most of the Police in most of the world is like that which is a good thing, However in the United States of America the police here are a bit more ruthless. Most of the police officers are very nice people and they really do want to help out in their community, but unfortunately there are some bad and corrupt cops in the system that will break the law and do some bad things. In the Modern world most bad cops are seen as racist and trigger happy. They don’t kill for fun of course but whenever they feel threatened they are trained to feel as though they need to take down their target since they are taught to make sure they don’t do something that will end up killing them. While nobody is at fault with these cases it is unfortunate that it does happen. Thankfully most of those cops are not as bad as the actual corrupted ones where they do business with drug lords and take their money just so that the criminals don’t get ratted out and so that they can continue their business. While there are some organizations that are corrupted the people in America do have power and a decent morality to do something about it. There are many organizations and cases that happened in the supreme court that has changed how the police behave and act when they are out on the