Boston Watch System

In the 1800s, America became extremely industrialized. Due to all of the new upbringings there was a need for organized policing. Policing in America went through many different stages beginning with organized American law enforcement, to formal policing. Michael Moore and George Kelling inferred that there were three eras of policing; political era, professional era, and community era. The political era came first along, as that era began to go downhill, the professional era arose. As the professional era began to take drawbacks, the community era started up and is still going on in present day. There are many positives and some negatives in today’s society living in the community era.

Policing dates back thousands of years to even before the Roman times. The origins of American policing are closely related the Anglo-Saxon model which gave a more communal responsibility. The four Eras’ of American policing that will be focused on are The Political, Professional, Community Policing, and Homeland Security.

Are we headed backwards with our policing today? A question I have asked myself frequently while preparing this paper. Of the three eras of policing I will discuss the Community Era and the Political Era. The political era lasted about 90 years, starting from 1840 going through 1930. The purpose during this era was to protect and serve the public in the safest, and most productive way known, kind of like today, but a different style. Let us look at this style resembling todays era. Officers familiarize themselves with the community by the way they patrolled, they did a style by foot, called a beat. While patrolling by foot they did things to give back to the community like taking out garbage, helping to keep the community nice and clean and getting to know the local business owners.

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.

Since the dawn of human kind, there has been some form of policing; whether that policing is based on taking revenge or the maintenance of public order and upholding the laws of the land. Although 200 years have passed, policing policies fundamentally has not changed. In this essay, I will be writing on early policing before the 19th century, policing in the 19th century, how policing evolved in America, policing now, and then compare the similarities and differences between today’s policing policies and those of the 19th century.

Policing in the United States copied closely to that of England’s in which they used volunteers as a “watch”. Boston was the first to adopt this method and in doing so other cities had followed, New York in 1658, and Philadelphia in the 1700’s. These volunteers were usually drinking or sleeping during their shifts so they were not very effective. These Volunteers that were a part of the watch only volunteered so they could attempt to evade military services. They were also made up of constables, which are, a peace officer that has limited police authority and they usually operate in a small town or city.

There are many factors that contribute to today’s American policing. Once such factor that contribute tremendously to today’s policing came in 1829 when Sir Robert Peel’s concept of policing came into effect. This would change the way policing would be performed in not only England, but the United States (U.S) and around the world. Another huge factor that impacts policing is the relationship the U.S. Government has with policing. These factors affect every policing organization in the U.S.

Early policing in Colonial America had its beginnings in England. Police departments in America started to follow the trend. Actually, they were not police departments as we know them today. Policing in colonial America began as a night watch program of volunteers in the early 1600’s in the northern colonies, specifically in Boston. Early policing was not the same throughout the colonies. Southern colonies developed their own system of policing based on the needs of the community using watch groups and organized groups of white men known as slave patrols. The policing systems changed as the colonies grew in population, more small businesses, the development of large industries and more funding became available. “War and then revolution strained the Boston watch system…the French and Indian war 1756-1763…” (Wadman &Allison2004,p.10). The watch system in all of the colonies had similarities and differences, however none were very successful in reducing crime. New York, Boston, Charleston, Virginia, and Tennessee all suffered immense problems with their crime rate using the watch system. This was the first form of policing in colonial

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.

Well first and foremost we have the Political Era, this era which was from 1840s to the 1930s. Strengths of this era are common to what we strive for in community policing today, for example in this era the police sought out a very close relationship with the community. Because of the tith act, which required every male to enroll for police duty in a group of families within a community, the police had a lot of man power which was a tremendous benefit for the “wards” (Miller, L., Hess, K., & Orthmann, C. 2005). With the tithing system this established the principals of collective responsibility for maintaining local law and order within their community or “ward” (Miller & all). One of the most important strengths but also a weakness was that the police officers lived within the community in which they

The early colonists started policing when they first arrived in America and had established colonies. April of 1631, in Boston, the townspeople volunteered to watch the city at night (Early Days of…). These watchmen would patrol the night trying to catch criminals. If criminals were spotted, the watchmen would scream and set off alarms to raise awareness to the townspeople. In smaller places, the governor would appoint sheriffs to watch over the colony at night. The sheriffs were appointed to watch the town instead of volunteers because of the small number of people in the

Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2014). Policing in america (8th ed.). (S. Decker-Lucke, Ed.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved January 2017

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

Police forces or Law enforcers have been used for centuries all around the world but America took particular interest in the English’s policing system. America’s policing ideas and process began

The history of policing dates back several thousand years ago when there was no order or peace and inhumane acts upon citizens was the norm with religious, political, or military police acting as the law. Policing was unstable and unorganized. Citizens took the law into their own hands and served as judge, jury, and executioner. There was not such a thing as being “innocent until proven guilty.” If the community believed an individual was guilty of a crime then the community would handle the offense themselves. American policing stems from the English heritage; crime prevention and control, preventive