Instructors Manual - For Policing (Justice Series) 3rd Edition John ...

Instructor’s Manual For Policing (Justice Series) 3rd Edition John L. Worrall Frank J. Schmalleger 1 / 4

iii Contents

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Chapter 1: Origins and Evolution of American Policing

Chapter 2: Policing in the American Context

Chapter 3: Law Enforcement Agencies and

Their Organizations

Chapter 4: Becoming a Cop

Chapter 5: Police Subculture

Chapter 6: Police Discretion and Behavior

Chapter 7: Core Police Functions

Chapter 8: Community Policing and Community Involvement

Chapter 9: Policing in the Modern Era

Chapter 10: Policing and the Law

Chapter 11: Civil Liability and Accountability

Chapter 12: Deviance, Ethics, and Professionalism

Chapter 13: The Use of Force 2 / 4

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CHAPTER 1

Origins and Evolution of American Policing

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

For students of policing, an appreciation of history is essential in order to understand the contemporary structure of law enforcement in the United States today. As a result of historical circumstances, the American system of policing is nearly unique in the world. Most countries today rely on one or only a few agencies for law enforcement. In the United States, however, there are thousands of law enforcement agencies with hundreds of thousands of employees. No other country has a policing system that looks quite like ours.

The study of policing history is important for another reason: repeats itself for worse when policy makers make decisions in a vacuum, without regard for those who have faced the same problems before. In other words, the failure to appreciate what was once tried without success leads to a costly repetition of past mistakes. Some critics of recent changes in American policing, such as the shift toward community policing, argue that what we are now doing signals a return to the days of old, which may not be desirable.

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

• Discuss the major milestones in the historical development of policing in the Western

world.

• Understand the significance of due process of law for American policing.

• Identify and describe the major eras of policing discussed in this chapter.

• Become familiar with the eras and be able to explain if they are distinct or

overlapping.

• Become familiar with the findings of the National Commission on Law Observance

and Enforcement?

• Discuss the significance of those findings and what impact they had on American

policing.

LECTURE OUTLINE

From Private to Public Policing

One of the earliest known methods of policing, called kin policing, involved families, clans, and tribes enforcing informal rules and customs. 3 / 4

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Each member of the group was given authority to enforce the established rules, and individuals who deviated from community norms were often dealt with harshly. This method of policing changed during the rise of the Greek city/states and the Roman Empire, and law enforcement evolved from what was essentially a private affair to a public one.

One of particular relevance to criminal procedure are the terms justice and liberty. The Constitution helps ensure justice and liberty by defining the various roles of government and protecting the rights of people within the nation’s borders. Throughout the nation’s history, the courts have devoted a great amount of energy to interpreting the Constitution and specifying what rights are important and when they apply.

To a large extent, policing in London became the model for policing in America. Historians have called attention to various forces behind the emergence of American policing, several of which we will consider shortly, but what early American policing looked like stemmed a great deal from the English approach.

In 1822, British home secretary Sir Robert Peel criticized the state of policing in London. Some years later, he was responsible for passage of the “Act for Improving the Police in and Near the Metropolis,” otherwise known as the Metropolitan Police Act.

Adopted by Parliament in 1829, this legislation created the world’s first large-scale organized police force in the city of London. As others have noted, the Metropolitan Police Act “introduced a centralized and unified system of police in England” and constituted a revolution in traditional methods of law enforcement. The legislation heralded the end of the old, fragmented, and ineffectual system of parish constables and represented the dawn of a whole new era of policing.

Chaos in the Cities

As America came of age, more immigrants arrived and settled in urban areas. Cities became increasingly crowded, dangerous, and dirty. For example, from 1850 to about 1880, New York City’s population grew until almost a million people were crowded into the two-square-mile center of the city. The city’s East Side housed nearly 300,000 people who lacked toilet facilities, heat, fire protection, and other essentials. Unemployment levels were high, and sickness abounded. Cholera outbreaks were common, killing thousands of people at a time.

The Move West

As American pioneers moved westward, they did not leave the problems of the cities behind. In fact, the frontier mentality of fending for oneself and providing one’s own self-protection fueled plenty of violence.

Guns, knives, and fists were commonly used to resolve disputes in newly settled areas. Sheriffs and their marshals were appointed by town leaders to provide what little law enforcement was available on the frontier. These officials’ authority, though, was not always welcomed or respected.

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