Eras of Policing

Sir Robert Peel had a huge impact on England, American, and the world policing. He is also known as the father of modern policing. In 1829 Peel persuaded the Parliament of England to create the London Metropolitan Police, which is now recognized as the first modern police force. Peel created three elements he incorporated into London Metropolitan Police. First was mission. The mission was crime prevention and what can be done to prevent crime from happening. The second was strategy. Peel created a strategy to that he had hope would deter crime. The third was organizational structure. Peel set up hierarchical organization, a standard uniform, ran designations to police officers, and a chain of command similar to the military’s (Walker & Katz, 2011).

Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.

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

This essay will introduce two competing perspectives of policing, they are the orthodox and revisionist perspectives. This essay will then relate the orthodox and revisionist perspectives to the themes of lack of structure, industrialisation and finally hostility. It will then discuss whether the creation of the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 was an effective solution to the changes within society as well as the challenges brought about through crime and disorder. The orthodox view is that the Metropolitan Police were, in fact, a rational decision made to adapt to the needs of the society. They argue that the establishment of the ‘new’ police was inevitable. The revisionist view would state that the ‘new’ police were not a rational decision. They believed that crime and disorder were not increasing, it was just that the ways of counting crime were largely different to previously. The revisionists also believe that the new system was in part beneficial for which to tackle issues that may have occasioned due to the new ‘dangerous class’ (Monkkonen, 1981, p147). In this essay, there will be reference made to the Brixton Riots in 1981 with a clear explanation as to how the orthodox and revisionist perspectives relate to modern policing activities.

Sir Robert Peel is known in the books as the founder of the first form of an English police department: the London Metropolitan Police. This was after his London Metropolitan Police Act passed in 1829, giving greater power to the English police force and establishing what he is known for today. Peels ideas were very well defined and offered a lot to policing even up to modern day. To understand the impact of this, we must take a look at Peel's act, and know how it would change policing.

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.

Robert Peel is probably the most influential name associated with modern day policing. In the year of 1829, he formed the first modern metropolitan police department which the modern day police were known as “Peelers,” or “Bobbies.” He set up principles, which are called Peel’s Principles of Law Enforcement that have influenced that has set the foundation to how to keep the safety of fellow citizens as well as justice for actions. These nine principles set up what he envisioned the metropolitan police to stand for and he wanted people to mold themselves to the conformity of the nine principles.

The four eras of policing are political era, reform era, community era, and homeland security era. The political era was between 1840s and 1919 where police agencies were underdeveloped, decentralized, and disorganized in their mission, role, and function. Police organizations nationwide were exposed for their inability to maintain order, to control crime, or to fairly provide appropriate services. The reform era occurred between 1920s and 1970s where police was removed from the political arena and established them more as members of a centralized, professional organization formed for the public good. The primary role of police in this era had contributed to the problems crating negative police-community relations. The community era was between

     Law enforcement is divided into three major eras throughout history. These eras are the political era, the reform era and the community era. The political era that took place between 1840-1930 was characterized by five points, which was the authority was coming from politicians and the law, a broad social service function, decentralized organization, an intimate relationship with the

The overall boom in industrial growth and overcrowding brought more crime, riots, public health issues, race and socio-economic divisions, and general disorder.” (Johnson, David R.) This was the beginning of our new and enhanced law enforcement system. In the year 1829, England implemented their new policing system, which was stronger and better than before, and it was designed to prevent crime from happening, rather than to respond once it has already occurred. “In 1833, Philadelphia organized an independent, 24-hour police force. In 1838, the Boston Police force was established, with a day police and night watch working independently. New York City followed suit in 1844, becoming the New York City Police Department in 1845. Police chiefs who were appointed by political leaders now headed police departments. While it still had its flaws, this “new” method of policing more closely resembles a modern day police force. Now there was three compelling issues faced early American police departments: (1) should police be uniformed; (2) should they carry firearms; and (3) how much force could they use to carry out their duties. The local merchants and

Describe the colonial period’s three legacies to contemporary policing. Then list and discuss two powerful trends in England and America that brought about changes in

al).  An eye-opener that called for a serious re-evaluation of the current service became evident in a review of incoming calls, “in 1991, 60,000 calls to the police complaint line were abandoned by citizens prior to being answered. Many of these callers, in an attempt to contact the police, then called the 911 emergency line, tying up this emergency system (Griffiths et al., p.241)”.  The re-evaluation of the service, lead to  necessary changes and improvements being made, which resulted in the EPS adopting the model of community policing in their area.

Although in attempt to professionalize police, the professional model failed. One factor helped police improve their record in dealing with crime: information (Kelling, Moore, 1988, p. 10). The community policing era came about after information (i.e. official reports, research and social changes) noted that police were poorly trained, led and

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.