Cja 214 - History of Police

History of Police

Gloriana J. McCormack

CJA/214

January 21, 2013

The history of police helps society to understand what our current policing system was modeled after and what it has grown from. Police organizations are responsible for public safety and men like Sir Robert Peel made it his top priority to make sure that this was the case. Peel made sure that this was ultimately the case. He made it a priority that the police not only responded to crime but also that they helped deter it. The United States government also assists with this process by making the laws that the police enforce and uphold.

The history of police in America was based on English policing systems. This system included the English common law, the value that society places on the rights of the individual, the court, and its forms of punishments and the various law enforcement agencies (Walker, 1988). Dividing the history of policing into three eras helps to distinguish them by the dominance of a strategy of policing. The political era, named to the tie between the politicians and police, dated from the 1840s and ended in the early 1900s. The reform era developed as a reaction to the political era. During this time, citizens made numerous attempts to reform the organizations by placing external pressures on the police but this failed. These citizens were angered by the control that politicians held over the police. This era began in the 1930s, thrived in the 1950s and 1960s and began to deteriorate in the late 1970s. The reform era seemed to be giving into an era that was emphasizing community problem solving. There were no clear boundaries between any of these eras but there was a certain set of ethos that defined the professionalism, competence, and excellence that policing thrived on, and at any given time during these eras, one set was more powerful, better understood, and more used than the others (Brandstatter, 1967).

Many individuals influenced the history of policing but Robert Peel is known as the "father" of modern policing. The old system of law enforcement had collapsed in England by the early 1900s. London was suffering from crime, disorder, poverty, and ethnic conflict. The Gordon riots, a clash between English citizens and Irish immigrants, created a 50-year debate over how to provide a better source of public security. He convinced Parliament to create the London Metropolitan Police, which has been recognized as the first modern police force, and the officers are still known as "Bobbies" in recognition of Mr. Peel. (Gaunt, 2010)

There are three elements that show the modern type of policing created by Mr. Peel. These