Law Enforcement : An Ongoing World Essay

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 political era of policing started from 1840 to around 1930. The police’s main function was to give many social services to the citizens. Policing was decentralized in this era, meaning the decisions being made were upon a district to a neighborhood level. Patrolling was done on foot in

In April of 1635, the City of Boston established the first system of law enforcement in the 13 colonies. They were called the “Night Watch”, the officers worked part-time with no pay. It was until 1712 when the City of Boston hired its first paid full time law enforcement officer in the 13 colonies. On September 24, 1789 “the United States Congress created the first Federal law enforcement officer, the United

Assess the significance of developments in policing in influencing the effectiveness of law and order in the period 1830 – 1965.

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

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

Every aspect of modern society grew into what we know now as civilized. The American Police organization history and evolution can be explained by detailing the 3 eras of American policing. The Political Era, the Reform Era and the Community Integration Era.

The origins of policing in America can be traced back to its colonial years of the early 1600s. Unlike the formal police forces we have today, policing took different forms during its early years. In the Northern states, policing consisted of volunteers that warned their communities of any upcoming threat or danger. Although this mode of policing was not effective in controlling crime, it continued until the 1830s, at which the city of Boston was the first to establish a police force. By the 1880s, all major cities, such as Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia, had established municipal police forces. More interesting and controversial, the development of policing in the Southern states was shaped by slavery and the control of minorities.

Numerous police agency’s and police officials work on a distinctive local, state, and federal level and role. It has its individual area, sectors, and function, and work according to local streets parts inside policing. In order for any local, state, and federal police division to work successfully it must hire chiefs, deputy’s, and sheriffs who retain leadership and who uses creative thinking skills to teach comprehensive, and aggressive instruction to make the police division a tougher department by holding all its workers tasks for doing his or her job according to its agency’s guidelines and procedures known as code of conduct. “Municipal police work for municipalities such as towns or cities, county police and deputy sheriffs work for counties, state police work for states, and federal police work for the federal government. Some have the same duties as one another or very similar duties, and some have different or additional duties. Their jurisdiction is sometimes the main difference. For example, a municipal police officer normally has primary

As we are now living in a century where everything is more organized, when a crime is committed, the first thing that comes to our minds is police officers. Due to the fact that we are surrounded by thousands of police departments, we no longer give them the right attention they deserve; rather we take them for granted. Well before it was nothing compare to now, it took many years for England to develop a security system, which later on America copied some of the fundamental techniques. England helped America guide the policing system to be more effective. Such as something so basic as the title Sheriffs come from the word shire reeves, which is from England (The History of Policing, 2014, p.3).

The origins of policing within the U.S. trace back to its English heritage. Concepts concerning police and also the community, crime hindrance, the posse, constables, and sheriffs developed from English enforcement. Starting at 900 c.E., the role of enforcement was placed within the hands of the common, everyday subject. Every subject was accountable for aiding neighbors who could be victims of outlaws and thieves. As a result of no cops, people used state-sanctioned force to keep control of the areas.

The dictionary definition of the police is “the organized civil force of a state, concerned with maintenance of law and order, the detection and prevention of crime, etc,” (Collins English Dictionary, 2002). This definition states the minimum of what the police actually do. Providing support for families, protecting society from criminals and responding to calls 24 hours a day 7 days a week are just some of the other roles that police have to deal with. In this essay the evolution of the police will be discussed as well as how the police are facing challenges.

According to REAL POLICE. (N.D.) Para 5, the first organized police force was created by the great nephew of Julius Caesar, Gaius Octavius in 27 B.C. These men were called Vigiles. The Vigiles were armed with wooden clubs and small swords. They were formed to perform two duties, fight fires in the city and arrest law breakers. The prefect of the Vigiles became a powerful man. He had the ability to judge and sentence lawbreakers.

In today’s society it seems as if all the violence that is occurring is revolved around race. Negative law enforcement involvement has been one of the major controversial topics that our generation has been faced with. Race, violence and authority is a very well-known racial disparity that will take some time to be seen otherwise. After the incidents occur, what really shakes the nation is that there is no real accountability. No one wants to admit that an injustice occurred and a small altercation lead to a casualty. Leadership within the justice system often gets challenged with such scenario. Does one discipline and makes an example out of his law enforcement officer (LEO), or does one address the public so that there is no uproar on such final decision.

Over many years the idea of a policing body took many forms. In many societies they were just a group of hired men that served a particular person, needless to say they were not acting in the best interest of society. Usually these groups were made up of workless men whose only ability was his strength. As more years role by the policing body adopted a more sociological or philosophical approach. These tactics included using the people themselves to police them selves. An example of this would be in early china where the people were expected to report on the neighbors and families for crimes committed against the state and ruling body. The idea behind this was to instill fear and unknowingness in the public to give the ruling body an upper hand. In other societies instead of punishing the wrong doer for a criminal action the ruling body would punish the families of the wrong doer. This would created a society that one would prevent crime on the idea f not wanting to harm one's family and two would created a society that would turn in a brother or neighbor to prevent harm done on one's self for another's actions. This would free up the government to deal with other matters.