Boston Watch System

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.

If you grew up in an average middle-class town in the United States you were probably raised on the premise that the police were there to protect and fight crime, however, in many of today’s urban centers throughout the country, the tension between the police and the citizens has a very different relationship. The term ‘police’ brings many images to mind, while the objective of the police is to prevent and detect crime, this is far from the way so many Americans feel. Far from the original purpose of the police, the use of brutal and sometimes lethal force has evoked questions regarding the skewed system and the relationship between both in the communities. Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the issue in the article, The Paranoid Style of American Policing, often bringing up complex issues, and effectively brings the issues to life through anecdotes. Coates presents a logical, thought out and well-executed argument surrounding the cracked police system in America. Due to the well-supported thesis, the structure of the argument, and lack of fallacies, Coates position is adequately supported through the use

The first era of law enforcement was the political era, which started in 1840 and ended in 1930. Evolution of Policing in the US-Influence of the Political Era reports that, “During this era, police performed much more comprehensive services, such as running soup kitchens, finding shelter for the homeless and helping immigrants find jobs, in addition to dealing with criminal activity. They were closely integrated within their communities and for those within the political sphere of the elected leaders within the community; the friendly image of the Irish beat cop emerges”(2013). Since it was the first era of policing there was a lot of pros and cons, compare to the era we are in now. Scott from Police

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.

America’s first taste of Law Enforcement emerged in Boston hundreds of years ago, where as early as the 1600s they appointed a “watch group”. This group consisted of those who volunteered their time, six “watchmen”, and a constable (nleomf.org). This early policing system didn’t have nearly as many duties and responsibilities as our current police forces do in America. Many of the things they were responsible for included responding to fires, capturing those who did not follow the law, and to help maintain order within their towns (nleomf.org). The constables had slightly different tasks and were the people who were responsible to make sure witness’/suspects attended court when they were required to (nleomf.org). Some constables were even responsible for surveying land, and supervising the watchmen (Potter, 2013). Things we don’t consider offenses in our current society and may even find a little comical today, like working on Sundays or swearing while in public were considered offenses (nleomf.org). In less populated areas there was usually one Sheriff who was responsible for enforcing the law in their area. The sheriff was appointed by the governor, and had similar tasks to the watchmen and

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

Formal policing model began to arise in the late 1800’s and leaders at the time

Since the beginning of police work in America, the system has changed from disorganized chaos into a well structured and rather complex network of communication, response efforts, and detection of lawless behavior. From the creation of the town watch to the transformation of the first police force in the colonies to the lawlessness of the old west and the efforts to revive efficient police work, America has been ever advancing its protection of those who live in the White House, the suburbs, the slums, and even those struggling on the streets. The History of Policing in America is not derived from one origin of time but rather taking the highest qualities of protection from within itself and countries of both friend and foe.

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

For the final project for this American Policing course I’ve created a research paper on Policing in America. Throughout the contents of this paper I have identified whether the current policing philosophies have a positive or negative impact on the communities and how I’ve arrived at this conclusion. I have provided this critical assessment and recommendation based on text readings, scholarly research, and personal experience, in and out of the bonds of this course.

Prior to the 1970’s, law enforcement agencies were completely unaware of how effective their methods of policing and patrolling truly were, if they were even effective at all. After questioning the efficiency of their methods for so long, the Kansas City Police Department decided to conduct an experiment on preventative patrol. This experiment focused on four main questions-- would the public notice, would visible police affect crime, would the citizens’ fear of crime diminish, and would police satisfaction change. Although preventative patrol has the aspects of a powerful policing method, this landmark experiment may have produced some interesting and thought provoking results on the topic.

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.

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

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 American policing was learned from Great Britain and adapted by America. The first ideal people to do the policing were healthy young boys and men that had come over with the Europeans on the first ships to venture to America (Trojanowicz, R. C., 1991). The main reason was to protect