Histories of Policing - Week 6
What Is Policing?
Social control and surveillance of deviance/conformity.
Moral and crime control, detection, and prevention.
Upholding/enforcing the law and detecting needs for social services.
Protection of the vulnerable.
Formalized service/force established in legislation.
Sir Robert Peel and the Police
Lobbied for formal police force in England.
1829: London Metropolitan Police established.
Primary goal was the prevention of crime.
Operated as a non-military entity with designated police beats.
9 Principles of Policing
Prevent crime and disorder.
Public approval of police actions is crucial.
Secure public cooperation through voluntary law observance.
Cooperation diminishes with the necessity of physical force.
Maintain public favor through impartial service to the law.
Use physical force only when persuasion is insufficient.
Police are members of the public, paid to focus on community welfare.
Direct actions towards police functions, avoiding judicial overreach.
Efficiency is measured by the absence of crime/disorder.
Legislation Established
Metropolitan Police Act 1829: Established a professional, centralized and organized force in London.
County and Borough Act 1856: Extended centralized, professional police force to rural areas.
Police Roles
Order maintenance and problem-solving.
Crime control and investigation.
Apprehending offenders.
Social service and regulation of social conflict.
Crime prevention and emergency management
Unique Role of Police
Capacity to wield non-negotiable force.
Mechanism for distributing coercive force based on situational needs.
Classical School and Policing
Jeremy Bentham: 'Greatest happiness for the greatest number'.
Cesare Beccaria: Deterrence Theory.
Modern theories of social control.
Historical Frameworks of the Police
Police as citizens in uniform.
Officers ‘of the law’.
Warriors in the fight against crime.
Frontline emergency service.
Low level peacekeeping force.
Risk Managers.
Policing in Australia
Policing the Colony:
Vast remote areas with limited resources.
Bushrangers.
Frontier including goldfields.
Policing Indigenous peoples, transitioning from suppression to protection.
Historical Policing in Australia:
Colony under military control.
Subject to laws of the ‘Motherland’.
Governor had ultimate local authority.
Watch and Ward systems.
Colonial Policing Bodies
1840: Recognizable policing bodies included Sydney Police, Water Police, Mounted Police, Rural Police, Border Police, and Native Police.
1856: Victoria had City Police, County of Bourke Police, Geelong Police, Gold Fields Police, Water Police, Rural Bench Constabulary, Mounted Police, and Native Police Corps.
Unifying State Police
1856: NSW established police based on English and Irish models.
Australian Police Agencies: AFP, ACT Police, NSW Police Force, NT Police, Fire & Emergency Services, QLD Police Service, SA Police, Tasmania Police, Victoria Police, WA Police Service.
Social Contract
Agreement to be governed, sacrificing some rights for the greater good.
Policing's role: enforces the social contract.
Social control: use of sanctions and rewards to influence behavior.
Historical Philosophies Behind Policing
Industrialization/urbanization VS Class.
Mistrust between working class and upper class.
Social Contract benefited the upper class.
Social Control and Policing
Codes of behavior assume a contractual form.
Conformity opposite of deviance.
Prevented crime, maintained order.
Upholding dominant social order and protecting private property.
Regulated public space.
Police discretion.
Police deviance and corruption.
Social Control and the Police
Historically viewed crime by asking 'Why people don’t commit crime?' rather than 'Why do people commit crime?'
Presence of police:
Directed people to conform?
Helped people manage their impulses/emotions?
Reminded people to obey the rules of society?
Criminological research measures social control mechanisms at the community level.
Calling the police as an act of informal social control.