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The Changing Role Of Policing In The Late 19th Century

Decent Essays

It comes from the Latin word “politia” which actually means civil administration. Politia goes

back to the Greek word “Polis” which means “city”. Historically the police can be seen as

someone involved in the administration of a city. Politia became the French word “Police”.

England took over the word police and used it when they named the 1st public-order officers in

1798. The officers were called Marine Police, and they protected merchandise in the Port of

London. Police are also represented as “Civil Authority” as opposed to the military power of our

government. We use the military in times of war and our civil authority to patrol our towns and

streets.

We do not have a lot of records about early police. We know early on that maintaining order …show more content…

Families committed crimes

against each other and retaliated. The English King put a stop to this practice. Policing has

gone through centuries of evolution. It really may be only a stepping stone to another police

concept for the future. As early as 2300 BC Sumerian Rulers codified a set of crimes against

society. From 849-899 King Alfred the Great structured people to govern themselves in small

villages. King Alfred the Great came up with the term “tithing” and requested that every male

enroll for police purposes in a group of 10 families or more. Tithing worked well until 1066

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