Historical Development of the Police CJA 204 10/14/2013 The purpose of this paper is to discuss the historical development of the police and it’s importance. Also the local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies under the Jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security and their purpose. Lastly, we touch on the Issues Facing the Police Departments of today. Police agencies, whether it’s local state, or federal are expected to put the safety of all individuals regardless of their Jurisdiction first at all cost.
The Historical Development of the Police Department originated in London, England. It was a major component of the criminal Justice system during the 18th Century Era under the English leaders. The citizens were responsible for their own safety and community. There was no training involved or pay for any services provided. During the 1840’s The Metropolitan America, focused on crime prevention verses post-crime detection and punishment. At that time officers were starting to get paid for their duties and 24 -hour services were provided.
The Frontier America Businessmen hired private security in efforts of reducing violence, theft and protecting their personal property. Bounty hunters, Vigilantes, self -proclaimed osses served as informal law enforcement in territories and Indian land (“CJi Interactive”,n. d. ). In the 1920’s Professionalism, policing focused more on law enforcement and crime control. While the social service elements were reduced and the political connections were rejected. Civil service systems were eliminated and police work became standardized, with specialized areas like Juvenile and drug units (“CJi Interactive”,n. . ). There are many different types of policing organizations in the United States and they all have different roles and functions at the state, local, and federal level. Federal employees roles differ because they are able to make an arrest in any state or county with no Jurisdictions like the FBI, DEA, and Homeland security are some of the federal agencies. The Department of homeland security interacts with local, state, and federal enforcement agencies by the developing, gathering, accessing, receiving, and sharing of information.
But, they are not required, to provide basic services of protection and criminal investigation (Walker and Katz, 2008,pg76). State employees such as, State troopers, Highway Patrol officers are not able to make any rrest outside of their state Jurisdictions. The duties of the two departments consist of patrolling a specific area, conducting investigations, and enforcing traffic laws on highways. The state police are much like local police except their Jurisdiction is much larger and they are broken up into specialized units, such as, investigative, aviation, and tactical units.
Where the highway patrol officers mainly enforce traffic laws on the states roads such as, DUI’s, drug trafficking, and traffic accidents. Local of their city or county Jurisdiction. Local police officers are responsible for providing afety within the communities, providing information to the public, conducting investigations, patrolling the streets, and preventing crimes. “The main functions of patrol are the prevention and repression of criminal, the maintenance of the peace, and the protection of life and property’ (lannone, 1975 p5).
In any American community with a police department, the patrol officer would be primarily responsible for the previously listed functions. Astoundingly the patrolman serves one of the most important roles in law enforcement. Even though a patrolman is at the bottom of the chain of command his duty is of great significance. Todays issues in the police departments are the rise in crimes because of lack of Jobs, bad cops with in the force, being understaffed, lack of trust among the public, and most of all the political involvement in the criminal Justice system.
If those particular issues are faced head on and solved accordingly, I truly feel things will improve for the better. There should be a more serious screening of the hiring process and if bad cops are found than they should be prosecuted. Increase of pay for policemen would most likely attract more good honest people for employment and that would help in the unstaffed issue. Continue to solve more cases effectively by arresting the right criminal the first time around saving tax payer money and increasing the faith back into our policeman of today.
In conclusion, the historical development of our policing has changed tremendously. We have not quite mastered every aspect of the system and all its capabilities but we have created some important roles within our government. With the change of times so will the ways of policing and Jurisdictions limits change. Later, we should see a lift in some areas of Jurisdictions allowing local and state governing bodies to provide the additional support needed to prevent rimes and solve cases in more timely fashion.
Importantly with our world changing more every day with technology and computers, one cant help but think of the changes to come as anything else but positive. Schmalleger,Frank. (2011). Policing: History and Structure Pearson Education ISBN: 97801135074091 (2013,06). Police History. StudyMode. com. Retrieved 06,2013, from http:// www. studymode. com/police-history-1769618. html (2012,10). Law Enforcement. StudyMode. com. Retrieved 10, 2012, from http://www. studymode. com/Law- Enforcement-1113996 (“CJi Interactive “,n. d. ). University of Phoenix 2013.
