History Policing, the Law Enforcement Industry America,

History Policing, the Law Enforcement Industry America, Police Role Society and the Functions Policing America; a critical analysis

A critical analysis: History Policing; the Law Enforcement Industry America; Police Role Society and the Functions Policing America

History of Policing

Formalized local government-based policing in America began in the late 1820s in the largest American cities. Early police officers were not considered to be professional with respect to social status. In fact, the terms professional and police were not likely to appear together. Policemen in this historical period were typically not much more than watchmen. It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that professionalism began to characterize American police. It is mostly agreed that the professionalization of the police in the United States began with the efforts of August Vollmer. (Douthit, 1975).

Vollmer was the first Chief of Police of Berkeley, California, elected as the town Marshall in 1905. By the time of his retirement in 1932, Vollmer had led the way in reforming policing as a socially recognized profession. He expanded his police force to include night and daytime patrols, and he developed law enforcement training courses that would later be replicated widely throughout the nation.

American police agencies are divided categorically by major components that include at minimum sub-agencies responsible for responding to and investigating the crimes of homicide, robbery, burglary, arson, sexual assault, drug law violations, vice, as well as a separate unit responsible for vehicular traffic control. In large departments, within each sub-agency there may be additional sub-agencies. For example, fraud, theft, and prostitution would be investigated by teams within a unit or division with a broader responsibility.

The Law Enforcement Industry in America

American law enforcement agencies serve the public and have common goals that include timely response to criminal incidents deemed important to the caller and to the agency, and the quick apprehension of offenders connected to those incidents. There currently exists in the criminal justice community a hearty discussion of the current police mandate. Some claim the decades-old professional model of policing is passe, having given way to community-oriented policing (Crank, 2003; Manning, 1988). Others think community-oriented policing in many progressive agencies has largely given way to problem oriented policing (Goldstein, 1979, 1990; Eck and Maguire, 2000). Still others are looking at the current state of policing as being increasingly technologically-based, therefore assuming a new model referred to as intelligence-led policing (Manning, 2001a, Clarke, 2006; Ratcliffe, 2007).

One problem associated with the typical organizational structure in law enforcement agencies is that it allows a division of work to stand in the way of crime clearance in that detectives working homicide cases and other violent crimes rarely communicate with traffic patrol officers. Described in organization literature as "working silos" (Ratcliffe, 2005; Maguire and John, 2006), agency productivity and efficiency are hampered by the very nature of agency design. With corrective systems in place, communication would more easily flow between functionally-identified employees working within a police organization, and more efficient use of workforce resources would result.

In the past, the public saw the police as an entity capable of protecting them while solving crimes with various degrees of competence and skill. The image of the police held by the public with respect to their potential for omnipresence changed dramatically on September 11, 2001 when the United States was attacked by al Qaeda. What was once only known within police inner circles was now broad public knowledge; American police are ill equipped to know what they need to know to protect their citizens because of poor lines of communication and the lack of intelligence.

Police Role in Society

The role of police in society is to protect civilians and address crimes being committed in the society by arresting criminals. There are major as well as minor crimes in society such as murders, thefts and public morality crimes such as prostitution, gambling, public drunkenness, disorderliness, and corruption. However addressing these crimes drew both praise and criticism from community members. However police should focus on public more than on law enforcement as the well-known scholar James Q. Wilson stated that the police role is more about handling people than about the enforcement of laws (Wilson, 1968),and credits Vollmer with having had a major favorable influence on the development of policing in the United States.

Vollmer developed college courses as well that were designed to teach both police officers and civilians alike about the role of police in a democratic society. His main focus was on conveying the notion of police officers as "social workers" who in the course of their public safety promotion work addressed a broad range of social problems giving rise to criminal activity. In addition, Vollmer spent ample time training his officers on technical issues such as criminal law and criminal investigation, and in the proper use of equipment and law enforcement technology available at the time (e.g., finger printing). Vollmer's work was championed by other early reformers, such as O.W. Wilson (Wilson, 1953).

In due course the long standing professional model of policing reflecting a legalistic style and quasi-militaristic organizational culture gave way to community oriented policing (COP) reflecting a service style of operation and an organizational culture emphasizing the decentralization of authority and the empowerment of line officers to exercise broad discretion on a wide range of police action (Crank, 2003; Manning, 1988). As that new model of policing continued to evolve among practitioners, some police agencies turned to the problem-oriented policing (POP) model (Goldstein, 1979, 1990; Eck and Maguire, 2000). Today, the professional buzz is on intelligence-led policing (Manning, 2001a; Ratcliffe, 2001; Maguire and King, 2004).

The Functions of Policing in America (1 page)

"the police aims to protect lives and property, yet loss of these, as well as complex disorders or urban freedom…[and that] 'Responsiveness' now incorporates the idea that citizens have a direct obligation, like the police, to react to and perhaps even anticipate the dynamics of crime and disorder in their neighborhoods" (Manning, 2001:p.89)