The Evolution Of Law Enforcement Essay

Every day, law enforcement officers encounter danger while carrying out their duties. The foremost duty of law enforcement officers are to serve and protect citizens. Most law enforcement agencies do this successfully. However, many people view law enforcement officers as the enemy. People need to be better informed about law enforcement and why officers take specific actions in certain circumstances. In our society, police are in a very dangerous position when it comes to the amount of force they can use when dealing with an individual. Officers use discretion when deciding the best course of action for the situation, whether it be physical force, persuasion, or coercion. They must take the correct course of action, because if they are too lenient or to forceful, even when dealing with petty things, they can be reprimanded by superiors and the public. Should police use force? Which circumstances warrant use force and what are the limits of force they can use? These questions are often asked when police are compelled to use force.

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

Policing throughout the years. Policing has changed over time to become what it is today. The three eras of policing are, the political era (1840-1930), the reform era (1930-1980), and the community era (1980- present). During the political era, police officers had strong ties to the community because they lived in the communities they served and they focused on foot patrol (Miller et al., 2014). They knew who they served and protected because they were out with the same people each day. Police chiefs

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

There is a significant health issue facing the public as well as law enforcement every day, suicide. The numbers surrounding suicide are shocking effects people of all backgrounds. In the year 2010 more than 38,000 adults committed suicide. Then in 2011 around 1 million adults admitted to attempting suicide, while 8 million had serious suicidal thoughts. Law Enforcement officers are at an even higher risk then most due to experiencing such a large number of risk factors. These factors include but are not limited to poor physical health, access to fire arms, domestic abuse, substance abuse, exposure to violence and suicide; depression, anxiety and other mental diseases. These factors lead to an above average number of officer suicides every

All together law enforcement has changed, but few see the drastic changes that have happened. Everyday, police and sheriffs are working to keep the people in their community safe. With improved technological advances and social changes, police and sheriffs are keeping a closer eye on things today. For example, improved weapons such as tasers have helped keep suspects safe, computers in police cruisers allow instant access of information of individuals. Other social changes, such as women allowed to join the police forces have helped law enforcement a lot with domestic violence cases because they are calmer then most men. No matter what happens police and the sheriffs will be there to protect and serve

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

Policing has come a long way since the London Metropolitan Police. In the mid-1800 's policing was more about crime prevention and use of force was a rare last ditch effort to gain compliance from a suspect ( White p. 69-69 ) New technologies have changed policing from an informal neighborhood watch to a sophisticated organization.

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

In every community, there's some type of law enforcement that carries a strong role of enforcing the law and protecting the community. Law enforcement is an old concept that has been existent in multiple shapes and forms since early civilizations. There are many ways to learn about early policing and how it was introduced to colonial America. This paper tells how different civilizations, especially that of England, shaped law enforcement in the United States.

1. Identify and discuss the eight (8) recurring reasons that change occurs in law enforcement agencies.

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.

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.

The earlier development of the law enforcement was developed by a man named Sir Robert Peel also known as the “Father of Modern Policing” (Bennett & Hess, 2007). He was born February 5, 1788 in Chamber Hall near Bury in Lancashire (Bloy, n.d.). He was the one who greatly influenced and set forth the fundamental principles of the police force. He developed an organized force called the London Metropolitan Police in 1829 that protected the people who were victimized due to high unemployment, poverty, and crime. An organization is “an artificial structure created to coordinate either people or groups and resources to achieve a mission or goal” (Bennett & Hess, 2007). The police’s goal is to protect and serve their community. Although the term of a police officer is mixed up with a peace officer “all police officers are peace officers, but all peace officers are not police officers” (Walker & Katz, 2011). The principles that Sir Robert Peel set for the police include: