Criminal Justice Paper

Question

Write a 700 word paper in which you include the following:
•An outline of the history of policing in America to present day
•The impact of historical figures (such as Sir Robert Peel) on the function of policing
•The relationship between current police functions and the law

Include a minimum of three references.

Answer

Policing History and Function Paper

It is essential to understand the history of the policing system in America as this greatly helps in decision-making and policy formulation. Policy makers need to take into account the already tested-and-tried methods of solving a particular challenges before coming up with related policies. To begin with, the American policing system is somewhat different from that of other parts of the world. It consists of thousands of enforcement agencies with hundreds of thousands of employees. Understanding of this unique system requires firstand foremost an in-depth appraisal of its history. Therefore, this paper aims at briefly tracing the origin of the American policing system with focus on the effects that some of the historical figures had on the policing function. It concludes by looking at the relationship between current police and the law.

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The history and evolution of the policing system in America began in the early 1830s and can be summarized into four era namely the political era, the reforms era, the community era, and the new era (Gaines, Larry K., and Victor E. Kappeler). To begin with, duringthe political era, the need for police was brought about by politicians’ need for security and order in the face of rapid economic growth at the time. This was the period between the years 1840s to 1930 and was characterized with close connections between the police and political officials. In this era, politicians had the power to hire and fire police officers therefore the police force was organized by and focused on serving the politicians. One historical figure in this era was the corrupt Detective Thomas Byrnes who was head of New York Detective Bureau who used his power to amass a large fortune for himself.

The reform era extended from the year 1930 to 1970. Basing their arguments on the events of the previous eraand singling out political influence on policing as their main point of concern, citizens agitated for police reforms. This era saw the election of Theodore Roosevelt as the New York Police Department Commissioner (Langworthy, Robert, and Travis, 289). His contribution to the reforms by forcing corrupt officers to resign and was responsible for the launch of disciplinary actions against police officer who absconded duty. Roosevelt’s reform agendas, however, came to pass through Berkeley Police Chief Augustine Vollmer who pushed for organizational reforms, higher standards in police recruitment drives, and change in management techniques. His efforts led to the enactment of the Progressive Policing policy.

The community era – the era of contemporary law enforcement – is characterized by collaboration between police departments and the community. The focus of the police became service to and with the community, which entailed emphasis on service and customer-friendly approach to law enforcement. It became apparent that working together with the community has a huge impact in preventing, solving, as well as fighting crime. This era saw the rise of O. W. Wilson to the Chief of police in Kansas City (Sparrow, Malcolm, Moore, and Kennedy, 135). Wilson’s main agenda and contribution as historical figure is in the zeal with which he worked to against corruption and police brutality. Some of his reform agendas are being used to date. In fact, the mission statement for his department in Kansas, ‘square deal code’, is currently still being used by the International Association of Chiefs of Police as the template of their ethics (Lentz, Susan, and Chaires, 70).

Lastly, the new-era policing system has been greatly being influenced by terrorism, particularly, the 11^th September, 2001 terror attacks on US soil. The policing phenomenon here is informed by the need to enhance homeland security through prevention of future terror attacks and intelligence guided policing (Lentz, Susan, and Chaires, 76).There is departmental restructuring to accommodate the antiterrorism units as well as refocusing community policing to include vigilance to terrorism threats or tendencies within the local communities. This era is still focused on partnership with the community in the fight against terror and crime in general. The fight against terror has also seen collaborations between agencies, activities like taking joint terrorism response training as an example.However, as a concluding remark, there are evident changes towards a more militaristic approach in law enforcement.

Works cited

Gaines, Larry K., and Victor E. Kappeler. Policing in America. Routledge, 2011. Print.

Langworthy, Robert H., and Lawrence F. Travis. “Policing in America: A balance of forces.” (1999). Print.

Lentz, Susan A., and Robert H. Chaires. “The invention of Peel’s principles: A study of policing ‘textbook’history.” Journal of Criminal Justice 35.1 (2007): 69-79. Print.

Sparrow, Malcolm K., Mark Harrison Moore, and David M. Kennedy. Beyond 911: A new era for policing. New York: Basic Books, 1990. Print.