History of Police in the U.S.

Origins of policing: Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Spartans, Israelis, Chinese; Policing has international history, however roots of U.S. policing are tied back to England.
Early settlers brought the night watch system, where able-bodied males donated their time to protect the cities.
1700’s: Citizens resolved disputes among themselves; intergenerational blood feuds, eye-gouging, gunfightism, and duels. As the nation’s cities grew larger and more diverse, voluntary citizen participation in law enforcement and order maintenance became less effective.
1749: The law created a position of warden (authorized to hire as many watchmen as needed, held power, and city-paid selected individuals from taxes. (Philadelphia, then expanded throughout the U.S.)
- Wardens & watchmen acted as warrants, detectives, and patrol.
- Cons: not widely respected, inefficient, corrupt, and susceptible to political interference.
1800s: Sir Robert Peel developed municipal policing in London, which by 1870 had spread to every major city in the United States

English Policing

Commonly known history
English policing can be traced back to specific ideas and processes that have influenced the U.S.

Slave Patrols

A different trajectory within the 17&18 centuries & police enforcement of the Jim Crow laws. White males mobilized as a militia against the Spanish invasion, leaving white families defenseless. They have no such thing as jurisdiction or control.

1800s: day watch systems were now established in certain cities. By the 1850s, day & watch systems now provided 24-hour protection to their cities.

Watch and ward systems had been replaced by centralized, government-supported police agencies that focused on crime prevention, “morality” enforcement, services tothe public, & apprehension of criminals.
Preventive policing was now included as order maintenance, where state & federal assisted
Technology was now in the atmosphere and added to the duties of policing.
- Call boxes, telegraphs, teletypes, two-way radios, and patrol cars.

Political era

Reform Era

Social Upheaval

Community Policing era

Homeland security

Throughout the progress of policing, political considerations continued to play an important role. Unlike England & the Crown, U.S. lacked a central authority and legal mandate. Police officers represented the local political party in power than the legal system.
Patrol officers were requires to enforce unpopular laws, adhered to personal relationships, and more, causing the expectations of society to question police as public servants, instead nown as political machinery
With this corruption came along with racial, ethnic, economic, and gender issues becoming a tradition/ pride for those who served.
Attempts to address these issues came form the Pendleton Act, which required that government jobs be awarded on basis of merit rather than one of friendship/political favors leading to police accountability.
Tradition still present today (Example: Ray Nagin, NYpD, etc.)

This era involved reorganization, strong sentral administration, specialized units, and increase of officers.
Professionalism was recognized as one of the key issues that led policing astray.
August Vollmer, known as the father of modern police systes, stated that professionalism, higher education, and qualified individuals would helo restor epolicing.
As reformers attempted to defined policing a s aprofession, the service role changed to a crime-fighting role, which led to a stop of wide-range services including assisting homeless, baby-sitting and locating employee work (helping people find employment).
Reformers adopted military customs which led to the creation of vice, juvenile, and traffic divisions, also pushing for technological advances to be adapted accordingly.

1960s: One of the most challenging eras in U.S. policing. Crime rates doubles, civil right movements, and antiwar sentiment brought police to the center of the storm.
- Historically due to the mishaps between police and minorities, policing came into question.
Social fear of family, church, and police were losing grip on society. This elad to laws providing resources, funding, programs of education, and money to improve/strengthen criminal jsutice agencies.
There was a discrepancy on what the public assumes the police can accomplish and what they can actually accomplish.

1980s: More technological advances were being adapted to enable departments to institute crime analysis programs to track incidents, common factors, suspects, victims, and perpetrators. In addition to this computer-aided dispatch and 911 systems were developed.
Community relations programs (1960) were created due to the social upheaval era as an experiment to bridge the gap between police and community. This later became a revolution in policing.
- Police noticed that they could not deal with increased crime and violence by themselves, allowing the public to. help them and create a relationship of trust. this returns us back to the principles built by Sir Robert Peel.
At the same time, problem-oriented policing was created to emphasize continuous crimes.

2001: terrorist attacks of 9/11 set in motion a new era of policing. President Bush launched a war on terrorism and enacted the USA PATRIOT ACT
Police in the era of homeland security were now trained to be more familiar with information technology; gathering, processing, and disseminating.
- Police also enhanced skills pertaining to weapons of mass destruction, events of mass casualties, and methods to prevent terrorism.
All law enforcement have a heightened awareness of homeland security in this current era, however it is mostly federal law enforcement and police in large metropolitan areas that have concentrated efforts and resources on this
type of security .

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Intelligence-Led
- Policing model that oriented in Britain and focuses on risk assessment and risk management. this includes identification of risks/patterns associated with groups, individuals, etc on when and where a crime will be committed.
Terrorism-Oriented
- Biden Administration unveiled national strategies that combat domestic extremism, hiring more intelligence analysts, and screening government employees. Counterterrorism efforts have been prioritized to ALL terroristic attacks.

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