Transcript Police in a Democracy - Northern Illinois University

Historical Origins of Police
• What good is history? Why do we pay
attention to history?
• An appreciation of history is important to
understand social change.
• It helps us better understand why the Police
function as they do today.
• What are the forms police have taken over the
years? To what extent have police improved;
to what extent does residue of the past
persist?
• What social forces have been paramount?
Historical Origins of Police
• The history of police is about change and “police
reform” which reflects:
– Functional changes in American society
– The interests of the powerful in defining and enforcing a
legal system that reproduces a status quo
– These 2 interpretations are contradictory (but not
necessarily incompatible)
• Why is the history of police a story of reform? To
answer this question you need to know something
about the origin of the police institution
• English system: Roots of US police
• Limited authority (feature of democracy)
• Local control (feature of democracy)
• Fragmentation
Origins of Modern Police
Policing: the family, clan, or tribe enforced informal notions of policing
Kin Policing, Nightwatch & Pledge System (everyone responsible for public
safety)
First paid police officer: praefectus urbi, in Rome 27 BC. By 6 AD, Rome had a
large public police force.
12th century England: sheriffs appointed by the king to collect fines and
enforce the frankpledge system.
–Frankpledge system was based on tithings (10 families) and hundreds (10
tithings)
–Tithings - collectives of ten families responsible for policing their own minor
problems
–Hundred - collective of ten tithings who reported to a Constable (appointed by
local nobleman)
–Shires -geographic areas similar to counties were controlled by the Shire Reeve
(sheriff) appointed by the local landlord or the Crown
–Posse Comitatus – Men responsible for pursuing fleeing felons
–Police reflect community needs for security & elite (royal) interest in maintaining
order and collecting revenue
The Birth of Modern Police -13th Cent. England
• 1285 Statute of Westminster:
– Every hundred appoint 2 Constables to assist Sheriff.
– The Constable issued summons, supervised the nightwatch,
and conducted investigations.
In theory, the Watchmen patrolled at night to deter and report robberies,
disturbances, fires, etc. and reported these to the area Constable (who
became the primary metropolitan law enforcement agent).
1326, Justice of the Peace was created to help the Shire Reeve control
the county. Ultimately the Justices began to take on judicial functions
(besides their primary role as peacekeeper.) Local Constable became
the assistant to the Justice (by supervising night watchmen,
investigations, serving summonses, executing warrants, securing
prisoners).
The relationship between the Justice of the Peace, the Constable, the
Shire Reeve, and the Watchman formed the basis of a criminal justice
system that has endured for almost 700 years since then.
Industrialization & Policing
• Constable-Nightwatch System
• End of 1700s, the beginning of the industrial revolution: Urbanization (people
moved to cities).
• Unprecedented social disorder.
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Unemployment
Poverty
Inadequate informal social controls
Formal social control mechanisms become more important: Police
• Monied Police (private police hired by individuals for specific cases) aka: thief
takers
• Key issue of Corruption
– Taking money from those who hired them to catch and inform on criminals, also
took money, stolen property, hush money, money for false testimony, blackmail,
etc. from criminals
– Violent enforcement of their private deals (court bailiffs among the most
notorious)
– No system of accountability
– 1829: Metropolitan police act. First organized British metropolitan police force.
– Founder of British Policing: Sir Robert Peele. Advocated a civilian police based
upon a military model. Established the first English police.
Historical Origins
• Father of Modern Police: Sir Robert Peele
• Metropolitan Police Act established 1st modern police
force in London in 1829
• Structured as a military, known as bobbies (after Robert
Peele), wore a uniform, led by two magistrates ultimately
given the title of commissioner
• Mission: crime prevention
• Strategy: preventive patrol
• Problems, but overall improvement
• By 1856, it was required that every town have a local
police force in England.
Peelian Reforms to Policing
• The police must be stable, efficient, and organized along military
lines.
• The police must be under government control.
• The absence of crime will best prove the efficiency of police.
• The distribution of crime news is essential.
• The deployment of police strength both by time and area is
essential.
• No quality is more indispensable to a policeman than a perfect
command of temper; a quiet, determined manner has more effect
than violent action.
• Good appearance commands respect.
• The securing and training of proper persons is at the root of
efficiency.
• Public security demands that every police officer be given a number.
• Police headquarters should be centrally located and easily
accessible to the people.
• Policemen should be hired on a probationary basis.
• Police records are necessary to provide the best distribution of
police strength (Germann et al., 1973).
Origins of Police in the US
• Traced to British social, cultural and political roots
•Colonial Era 1700s
–Sheriff
•kept the peace along with other duties:
–tax collector
–election supervisor, etc.
–Sheriffs responded to citizen calls (rather than active patrolling).
– Received a fee for each arrest made - more lucrative to collect taxes,
not very focused on addressing crime
–Vigilantes - groups of private citizens who were organized
for some law enforcement purpose
•Slave patrols in south were based upon the “need” to apprehend
runaway African slaves & to prevent slave revolts.
•Population dynamics of colonial south. Vigilantes served as police,
judge, jury and “executioner” of justice.
Origins of Police in the US
• Traced to British social, cultural and political roots
•Modern Police Departments
–Emerged from mob violence in urban industrializing cities in
the 19th century; perceived threat/conflict among immigrant
groups
–Charleston (1837); Boston (1838); New York (1844); Phila
(1834)
–High paying relative to other blue-collar types of jobs in 19th
century (about double a factory workers salary)
–Patronage System:
•Very political in terms of who controlled the police, who was hired,
and who was promoted
•Machine politics and immigrant groups (having officers hired from
your group was a symbol of status in the U.S.)
Theories (explanations) of Police Development.
Disorder-control theory
Need to suppress mob violence. Boston had 3 major riots in the years
before the founding of the police.
Crime-control theory
Threats to public order create a climate of fear. Government responds
by creating police.
Class-control theory
Police reinforce class-based economic exploitation. Exploited labor
provided the fuel for capitalism, yet were always perceived as potentially
dangerous. Police were needed to ensure control of dangerous classes.
Urban dispersion theory
They were seen as a legitimate part of municipal governance. They
underwent a process of dispersion from major metropolitan centers to smaller
ones. At the end of the civil war there were still very few. By the late 1800's,
virtually all cities had one.
Origins of Police in the US
•Lack of training, unprofessional organization, no standards
•Police/Public conflict has its roots in these origins: police
responded swiftly and brutally against the public when order was
perceived as threatened (labor disputes, crowds, etc.)
•Not crime fighters, but charged with Maintaining Order
•Average officer
–Had little training,
–No education in the law,
–Little supervision,
–Huge power in judging law in the streets and act with unlimited
discretion, lack of technology limited oversight/accountability of street
patrol
Police generally regarded as incompetent and corrupt in 19th
century: main concern was protecting private property and
keeping control over immigrants: protecting the interests of those
in power
Policing History: The Political Model
• Mid 1850s—Dramatic increase in need for municipal services.
– New arrivals—immigrants— often competed with established groups for
these services.
– Provided the grist for political bosses—leaders who aided the groups in
exchange for help being elected.
• Patronage system: jobs rewarded for political service.
– Police job required little skill. Police in turn provided assistance for
controlling voting.
– Policing represented the largest number of jobs available from most
cities. Cincinnati, 1880, 219 of 295 officers dismissed because of change
in elected leadership.
• The Role of Politics—often divided into two camps: middle and
upper class whites.
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Law was used to establish/impose morality.
Control drinking, gambling, and prostitution.
Immigrants, when police officers, laxly enforced these laws.
Most arrests were for drunk and disorderly conduct. A wheelbarrow to
transport “tipsy prisoners.”
– Late 1800s: Call box and horse-drawn carriage introduced for
transporting prisoners.
Progressives & the Call for Reform
• All the problems associated with large cities emerged
during this period.
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Health problems
inadequate housing
crime
congestion
• Mid-1890s to mid-1920s: the Progressive Era.
• Three elements relevant to Police:
– Honesty and efficiency in government.
– More authority for police officers (and less for politicians).
– Experts responding to specific problems.
Reform Era seeds Professional/Legalistic Era
• Reform Era
• Part of a larger Progressive Movement
– Focused on a variety of social problems, child welfare
– Increasing Oversight:
» citizen review panels,
» legislative control (NYC)
• 1893 IACP (International Assoc of Chiefs of Police)
– leading voice in the reform movement towards professionalism:
civil service police (detached from political changes), centralized
organizational structure of forces, record keeping to curb precinct
captain power, advocated specialized units (to address special
problems such as juvenile delinquency)
• Less corruption, highly trained, rule-orientation
– August Vollmer @ Berkeley emphasized an educated police
– Vollmer’s principles mark the beginning of the professional
movement in US police history
The Police Reform Movement
Emergence of commission approach to reform.
1919 Chicago Crime Commission was the first permanent
commission. External and expert committees created to
study police organization, behavior and the crime problem.
Wickersham Commission in 1929, by Hoover, “National
Commission on Law Observance.” August Vollmer—the
principal police consultant and author of the major report on
the police.
Limitations of Police Legitimacy, according to Vollmer:
• political influence,
• inadequate management/ leadership,
• ineffective recruitment/training,
• need to use accepted advances in science/technology
The Police Reform Movement
By the 1930s reform themes are established:
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Centralization (bureaucracy)
standardization of policy and practice,
merit selection/promotion,
commitment to crime fighting,
use of science and technology
Unintended consequence: paramilitarization of police agencies
By the 1960s, these were all being questioned.
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Urban Riots
Civil rights movement
Perceptions about increasing crime
Kerner Commission also looked at aspects of civil disorders. Found lack
of police responsiveness to the community. The most professional
departments were the most unresponsive.
– Community policing movement (late 1970s) emerges as an effort to
address the problems associated with the professional model of policing.
Modern Policing: The Emergence of the Professionalism
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Professionalism: Improving policing by adopting a code of ethics and improving
selection, training, and management.
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Legalistic model: police-community relations should be based on the law and
department policy – contra-politics – emphasis on “objective” law enforcement. Crime
fighting is the primary purpose of the police.
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The Professional Period: 1920-1970
Three characteristics of this period:
– European developments. This was the application of science to police work.
• Bertillon system
– Precise physical measurements,
– Description of distinguishing features, and later, fingerprinting.
– Enabled a record-keeping system about criminals. Provided a body of knowledge that could be used in
training.
– Changes in the United States
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Extensive demographic changes.
Immigration to inner cities.
Need for social services.
High Crime in Economically depressed & racially segregated neighborhoods.
Major riots in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1960s, in which the police were implicated.
– Commission Approach
Professionalization in American Policing
• Vollmer’s goals for professional police
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Define policing as a profession
Eliminate political influences (corruption)
Appoint qualified Chiefs
Raise standards for hiring/promotion
Introduce principles of scientific management
Develop specialized units
• First Female officers during this era (Lola
Baldwin)
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Assigned to juvenile units
No regular patrol duty
Assignments reflect stereotypes about gender roles
Is policing a masculine domain? Should it be? Why?
More on the Rise of Professionalization
• Technology
• New York 1853 uniform
• Telegraph allowed for police to report their whereabouts
to headquarters through a police box in the neighborhood
• Detroit 1897: Bicycles; Akron 1910 : police car
• Increasing technological saturation of society
– Telephone throughout the 1900s
– 2-way radio, especially after WW II
– Radical changes in the way policing gets done: patrol becomes
reactive to momentary citizen demands
– How does this shift who the police comes into contact with?
Consequences of this?
Impacts of Professionalization
• Positives:
–Some real change
–Increased military ethos of PDs
• Problems:
–Conflict in racial minority communities
–Riots in urban areas
–Increased military ethos of PDs
–Police aggression to quell unrest
–Few African-Americans hired as officers
–Goes un-discussed until the 1960s
Modern Era: “Police in Crisis”
1960s
• Earl Warren Supreme Court:
– Mapp v. Ohio 1961 (illegal search and seizure is unlawful)
– Miranda v. Arizona 1966 (police required to advise suspects of
rights before interrogation)
– A shift in the balance of power police had possessed
• Civil Rights movement:
» Challenged racial discrimination
» constitutional changes have big impact on how police conduct
business;
» urban protests/riots challenged police to handle new tasks in
a brighter spotlight
» Kerner Commission (1967) found deep fractures between
police and racial minority communities
Crime rate (violence) saw a sharp increase: changes police focus?
Kerner Commission Recommendations
• Change operation in the inner city to ensure proper
officer conduct & eliminate abrasive practices
• Provide adequate police protection to inner city
residents - eliminate high levels of crime & fear
• Create ways for citizens to obtain effective responses
to grievances
• Produce policy guidelines that provide police officers
with skills to avoid actions that create tension
• Develop community support for law enforcement
• Anticipates many of the values and goals of COPS
movement
1970s:
Modern Era
• New funding for police training (partly in response to 1960s). A lot of the
funding went to train officers and support educ. Programs
• Computers became a part of policing (record keeping, investigations,
communications, etc.)
• Still tumultuous relationship between police and racial minorities
• More women and minorities became officers through Affirmative Action
policies
1980s:
• Police role is expanding to include community orientation: community
policing.
• Police Union power created conflict between chiefs and force. Budget cuts
eroded some effectiveness
• Police/Public relations still a problem
1990s:
• New styles of policing that stress community cooperation and input.
• Many technological improvements.
• Simultaneously, corruption, misconduct, abuse of power (NYC, Cinci, LAPD)
Modern Era
Police in Crisis Redux (since 1960s)
• Developments?
– Changes in Police Officer profile
– Control of discretion
• Reforms
– Deadly Force
– Domestic Disputes
• Power of Police Unions
– Professional strength of Police workers
• Citizen Oversight of Police
– Accountability; civil liability; customer satisfaction model
• Resurgence of Community Policing, Problem-oriented
Policing and other police models in efforts to curb crime
Contemporary Law Enforcement Industry
What is meant by the term “Industry”?
–Police produce a variety of services
•Helps us to see Policing as a broad activity beyond
controlling crime through law enforcement
–Industry perspective assumes that Police have
“customers” they serve (citizens)
•Increases accountability of police to the public
Contemporary Law Enforcement Industry
Law Enforcement in the US
•Sprawling
–18,000 Agencies
–Compared to England (43 PDs with about ¼ pop)
•Complex
–Fragmented without centralization
•Compared to England – all PDs administered by a central
body
–Federal, State, Local
–A variety of police services and functions
Contemporary Law Enforcement Industry
What do US Police Agencies look like?
• Local police
• Sheriffs
• State police
• Special police
• Feds
•Typical Department?
–Small (less than 10 sworn officers)
–84 largest PDs employ 40% of all full-time police in
US
Employment by State and
Local Law Enforcement Agencies
in the United States
600,000
531,495
500,000
400,000
300,000
263,427
Employees
200,000
82,261
100,000
0
Local
Police
Sheriffs
State
Police
61,022
Special
Police
Contemporary Law Enforcement Industry
1994 Violent Crime Control Act (Response to spike in
violence in 1980s & 90s)
–Provided for hiring 100,000 additional police
•Resulted in fewer hired than provided for
Sworn vs. Unsworn Officers
Police:Population Ratio (1.5:1000)
Varies widely – no connection to crime
Policing is expensive to communities: most costs are in
personnel
Municipal Police
• 72% of all Agencies (employ about 60% of all
personnel)
• Big 6: NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Philly, Detroit
– 7.5% pop but 23% of violent crime
– 13% of all sworn officers
• More complex Role
– Cities are complex environments
– Serious crime production
– Diversity of services
Sheriffs
• More than 3,000 departments
• Unique and varied Role
– Full service model: police, court and
corrections (Andy Griffin)
– Very powerful in rural areas
– Elected office in most states
• Political
State Police
3 Models:
1. State police (traffic and crime investigation)
2. Highway Patrols (traffic mostly)
3. State Investigative Agencies (SBI)
Functions:
• Patrol
• Traffic Enforcement
• Crime Lab services in about 1/2 of states
• Training Academies (almost 80%)
Federal Law Enforcement
• 1996 Estimate: 75,000 agents
• Confusion over regulatory vs. enforcement
powers of Federal Agencies and their
officers
• Roles are more constrained, better defined
Federal
Law Enforcement Agencies
Treasury
Justice
Department
Department
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
& Firearms
• Internal Revenue Service
• U.S. Customs Service*
• U.S. Secret Service
• Federal Bureau of
Investigation
• Drug Enforcement
Administration
• U.S. Marshal Service
• Immigration &
Naturalization Service*
The Evolving Strategy of Policing
B&B Ch. 2 Kelling & Moore:
Dimensions of the Police Enterprise:
1. Legitimacy & Authorization (Political – Law/prof
– Comm support, law, prof)
2. Function (Crime, order, service – Crime – Crime, prevention, prob-solving)
3. Organizational Design (Decentral, geographic – Central – Decentral, special)
4. External Relationships to Environment (Close/personal – Prof/Remote –
5. Demand Management (Face-to-face/political – Central/Dispatch – Analysis)
6. Strategies & Tactics (Foot patrol – Prev. patrol/response – Foot Patrol; Probs)
7. Evaluation - Outcome Measure (Satis w/social order– Crime –Qual. Life; Satis.)
3 Eras:
1. Political
2. Reform
3. Community (Contemporary)
The Evolving Strategy of Policing
B&B Ch. 3: A Minority View (Williams & Murphy)
Accounts of Police History reflect a view from the perspective of police
Shaped by the Historical & Political Realities of Society
How have institutions, norms, attitudes dealt with racial minorities in the 3 Eras?
1.
Political;
2. Reform;
3. Community (Contemporary)
1. The origins of police are rooted in historically less democratic times
2. Organizational focus continues to reflect certain characteristics of earlier eras
3. Police reform was not experienced similarly across racial groups
3. Tracing the origin of policing in the US to Political Era ignores the reality of legal
race-based slavery and the police role in maintaining this system of control
4. Professional era promises only realized after civil rights movement
5. Community policing borne of civil rights movements & political change in cities
6. Hazards are embedded in community era. Like what?
Vigilance committees: Slave patrol activities range from carrying out due process to
acts of blatant revenge
South, 1882-1951, Jim Crow Era—about 4,700 lynchings, mostly of Blacks.
14th Amendment (1865) equal protection doctrine
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – establishes separate but equal doctrine