Three Eras of Policing: Political, Reform, and Community
This paper provides a comparative analysis of the three broadly recognized eras of American policing: the political era (1840–1930), the reform era (1930–1970), and the community problem-solving era (1970–present). Drawing on scholarship by Hartman (1988) and Greene (2000), the paper traces how policing evolved from corruption-ridden, politically driven enforcement to a professionalized, bureaucratic model, and ultimately toward a community-centered approach emphasizing collaboration, discretion, and problem-solving. The paper highlights the reactive nature of each transition and acknowledges that these eras represent broad national trends rather than uniform, simultaneous shifts across all jurisdictions.
- Introduction to the Three Eras of Policing: Overview and timeline of all three policing eras
- The Political Era of Policing (1840–1930): Corruption, coercion, and political control of police
- The Reform Era of Policing (1930–1970): Professionalization, hierarchy, and reduced corruption
- The Community Problem-Solving Era (1970–Present): Community collaboration and organic problem-solving
- Conclusion: Eras as trends, not rigid historical divisions
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses a clear chronological structure that makes the evolution of American policing easy to follow, with each era building logically on the failures of the previous one.
- It acknowledges complexity and nuance — notably, that the eras are not clean dividing lines but general trends, which adds intellectual honesty to what is otherwise a broad survey.
- Concrete examples, such as police coercing vagrants to vote during the political era, ground the historical analysis in tangible detail.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the compare-and-contrast technique applied to historical periodization. Rather than treating each era in isolation, it consistently frames each transition as a reaction to the failures of the preceding period, creating a cause-and-effect narrative that ties the analysis together across all three sections.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing introduction that defines all three eras and sets their approximate dates. It then dedicates one body paragraph to each era, examining the defining characteristics, problems, and eventual limitations of each. The final section addresses the current community policing era and its still-unresolved trajectory. References from Hartman (1988) and Greene (2000) anchor the argument throughout.
Introduction to the Three Eras of Policing
According to most experts, there are three distinct eras of policing: the political era (1840–1930), the reform era (1930–1970), and the community problem-solving era (1970–present). During the political era, policing was focused on satisfying politicians, was loosely organized, and had limited civic ties or regulatory oversight. The reform era began to normalize policing in the civic sense, with stronger connections between bureaucratic agencies and the police, moving away from political motivation and toward the needs of the community. It was during the reform era that police agencies and departments began to be governed by a hierarchy in a more militaristic style, began wearing uniforms reflective of a higher level of professionalism, and became answerable to a less political body — namely, the public.
After the 1970s, growing demands for police accountability to the public ushered in the community problem-solving era. This era has been marked by a greater emphasis on community policing, greater professionalism, and police bureaus and agencies more reflective of the communities they serve. All three eras are not reflective of a clean historical line — not all regions of the nation or individual agencies conformed to changes at any given moment — but they broadly capture the trends throughout criminal justice history and provide a useful historical perspective on policing in America (Hartman, 1988, p. 1). This paper briefly compares and contrasts these three eras.
References
Greene, J. R. (2000). Community policing in America: Changing the nature, structure, and function of the police. Criminal Justice 2000. Retrieved June 18, 2011, from
Hartman, F. X. (Ed.). (1988). Debating the evolution of American policing. Perspectives on Policing. Retrieved June 18, 2011, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/114214.pdf
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