Chapter Two: The History of the American Police
Lecture Outline
I. Relevance of police history
A. Dramatize the fact of change
B. Put current problems into perspective
C. Help us understand what reforms have worked
D. Alert us to the unintended consequences of reform
II. The English heritage
A. Three enduring features
1. Limited police authority
2. Local control of law enforcement agencies
3. Decentralized and fragmented system
B. Creation of the modern police--London
1. Riots, disorder and poverty triggered need for better public safety
2. Sir Robert Peel--"father" of modern policing
a. established London Metropolitan Police in 1829
b. reflected vision of efficient proactive police force
c. London officers named "Bobbies" after Sir Robert Peel
3. Key elements
a. mission: crime prevention
b. strategy: preventative patrol
c. organizational structure: quasi-military
4. Other features
a. public: responsible for public safety
b. specialized: mission of law enforcement and crime prevention
c. professional: full-time, paid employees
III. Law enforcement in colonial America
A. Law enforcement institutions
1. Sheriff
2. Constable
3. Watch
4. Slave patrol
B. Characteristics of colonial law enforcement
1. Inefficient, corrupt, subject to political interference
2. Crime control
a. little capacity to prevent crime or apprehend offenders
b. reactive--did not engage in preventative patrol
c. lack of personnel to investigate crimes
d. no convenient way to report crimes
e. officials paid for civil responsibilities
f. little deterrence for crime
g. lack of communication among watch members
3. Order maintenance
a. ill-equipped due to lack of personnel
b. citizens could not readily report disturbances
c. sheriff nor constable could respond effectively
4. Service--nonexistent
IV. The first modern American police
A. Modern forces established in 1830s and 1840s
1. Older system broken down due to:
a. urbanization
b. industrialization
c. immigration--riots between ethnic groups
2. Delays in creation of police forces due to:
a. memories of hated British colonization
b. fear of political control
c. lack of preparation to pay for public police force
3. Differences between U.S. and British policing
a. U.S. more democratic than Britain: citizens had direct control of
government
b. London
i. no direct control over police
ii. free from political influence
iii. ability to maintain high personnel standards.
c. result: U.S. police departments immersed in local politics
V. American policing in the nineteenth century, 1834-1900
A. Personnel
1. Non-existent standards
a. officers selected on political connections
b. few female patrons--no female officers
2. Little pre-service training
3. No job security
4. Patronage
a. jobs used to reward friends
b. jobs based on political power
B. Patrol work
1. Foot patrol
a. large beats
b. little coverage
2. Lack of communications system
3. Supervision
a. weak or nonexistent
b. officers evaded duty
c. sergeants unable to keep track of officers
4. EX: Officer Wakeman, Boston, 1895
a. "officer of the neighborhood"
b. most time spent on minor crimes: disputes, property crime
c. little time spent on major crimes: murder, robbery, rape
d. resolved problems informally
5. Communications system
a. call boxes linked to precinct stations--sabotaged by officers
b. difficult to supervise officers
c. difficult for citizens to contact police
C. The police and the public
1. Myths
a. officers were friendly, knowledgeable, helpful
b. methods of policing were rough, but they maintained order
2. Realities
a. few officers
b. high personnel turnover
c. officers had serious drinking problems, used excessive force
d. officers enjoyed little public respect
e. police were a major social welfare institution
D. Corruption and politics
1. Endemic in the 19th century
2. Police received payoffs for not enforcing the law
3. Officers often paid bribes for promotion
4. Corruption served social and political ends
5. EX: alcohol--symbolic issue in American politics
a. prostestants' attempt to impose morality on immigrant groups by
outlawing and controlling drinking
b. immigrants fought back by controlling law enforcement
E. The failure of police reform
1. Reformers made police corruption a major issue in 19th century
a. concentrated on changing structural control of police departments
b. usually by creating board of commissioners appointed by governor of
the legislature
c. struggle for control reflected divisions along political parties,
ethnic groups and urban and rural perspectives
2. Reasons for failure
a. emphasized replacing political opponents with their own supporters
b. lacked substantive ideas about police administration
c. made no significant changes in standards, training or supervision
d. no attention given to excessive force or race discrimination
e. Theodoore Roosevelt's attempt at reform--NYPD Police Commissioner
F. The impact of police on society is debated by historians
1. positive: some argue police helped to maintain order
2. negative:
a. police so few in number--could not have deterred crime
b. police served the interests of business and were used to harass labor
unions and break strikes
c. they became a social and political problem themselves
d. police were corrupt and inefficient
VI. The origins of police professionalism, 1900-1930
A. The professionalization movement
1. August Vollmer: police chief in Berkeley, CA 1905-1932
a. advocated higher education for police officers
b. wrote Wickersham Commission (1931) Report on Police
2. Part of the progressivism movement (1900-1917): reformers sought to regulate
big business, eliminate child labor, professionalize the police, etc.
B. The reform agenda
1. Reformers sought to:
a. define policing as a profession
b. eliminate political influence from policing
c. appoint qualified chief executives
d. raise personnel standards
e. introduce principles of scientific management
f. develop specialized units
2. First female sworn officers
a. assigned to juvenile units
b. Lola Baldwin--first female officer, 1905
c. Alice Stebbins Wells-LAPD, 1910
i. established International Association of Policewomen,1915
d. first female officers
i. did not perform regular patrol duty
ii. usually did not wear uniforms
iii. did not carry weapons
iv. most had limited arrest powers
C. The impact of professionalization
1. Reform progressed very slowly--mostly failures
2. Some successes:
a. firmly established the idea of professionalism as the goal for modern
policing, and defined a specific agenda for reform
b. increased military ethos of police departments
(EX: added parades, close order drill, military-style commendations)
D. Problems of professionalization
1. Police subculture
a. rank and file officers--forgotten in professionalization movement
b. creation of isolated and alienated subculture that opposed most reforms
2. Police unions
a. officers demanded better salaries and a voice in decisions affecting
their jobs
b. Boston police strike (1919) destroyed police unionism for next twenty years
3. Police administration--growth and specialization created difficult to manage
complex bureaucracies
E. Police and racial minorities
1. Conflict between police and African-American community intensified during WWI years
2. Major race riots in St. Louis, Chicago and other cities--investigation of riots
found race discrimination by the police
3. African-American officers
a. few hired
b. those hired were assigned to African-American communities
c. not allowed to arrest whites
4. Conflict did not receive serious attention until 1960s
F. New law enforcement agencies
1. State police
a. half were highway patrols--traffic control
b. half were general law enforcement agencies
(EX: Texas Rangers (1835), Pennsylvania State Constabulary (1905))
2. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
a. established in 1908 by Theodore Roosevelt
b. first full-time federal criminal investigation agency
c. immediately involved in scandal
VII. The new communications technology
A. Patrol car (1920s)
1. Police had to keep up with criminals who had cars
2. Efficient patrol coverage that would effectively deter crime
3. Allow the police to respond quickly to crimes and other problems
4. Effects
a. reduced informal contact with law-abiding citizens
b. racial minorities saw police as an occupying army
B. Two-way radio (late 1930s)
1. Allowed departments to dispatch officers in response to citizen calls
2. Supervision--allowed continuous contact with patrol officers
C. Telephone
1. Combination of phone with patrol car and two-way radio created communications
link between citizens and police
2. Allowed citizens to contact the police and request service
3. Enabled police to dispatch a patrol officer to the scene--allowed quick police response
4. Results of "calling the cops"
a. police called to handle very minor problems
b. citizens developed higher expectations of quality of life
c. call workload steadily increased
d. responses to increasing workload
i. more officers
ii. more patrol cars
iii. more sophisticated communications systems
e. in turn created more calls--pattern repeated itself
5. Altered nature of police-citizen contacts
a. brought police into homes
b. officers became involved in intimate domestic problems
(EX: husband-wife disputes, alcohol abuse, parent-child conflicts)
VIII. New directions in police administration, 1930-1960
A. The Wickersham Commission Report
1. First national study of the American criminal justice system
2. Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement
3. Findings
a. the practice of the "third degree" was used to gain confessions
b. police routinely beat, threatened and illegally held suspects
B. Professionalization continues
1. August Vollmer
a. Vollmer's protégés became police chiefs who spread reform agenda
throughout California
b. first undergraduate law enforcement program established in San Jose
2. O.W. Wilson
a. Vollmer's most famous protégé
b. wrote two influential books on police management
c. major contribution was efficient management of personnel
i. developed workload formula for patrol officer assignment
ii. emphasis on efficiency was the major influence in the basic
shift of American policing from foot patrol to automobile patrol
C. J. Edgar Hoover and the war on crime
1. Appointed director of the FBI in 1924
2. Accomplishments
a. increased size and scope of FBI
b. won control of Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
c. acquired increased federal jurisdiction
d. opened the National Police Academy
e. emphasis on education and training--established model for local police
personnel standards
3. Consequences
a. exaggerated FBI's effectiveness
b. focused on smaller minor crimes while ignoring major criminal activity
c. violated citizens' constitutional rights
d. emphasized crime fighting at the expense of other aspects of policing
IX. The police crisis of the 1960s
A. The cops and the Supreme Court
1. Mapp v. Ohio (1961): evidence gathered in an illegal search and seizure could
not be used against the defendant
2. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) : police required to advise suspects of their rights
before interrogating them
a. the right to remain silent
b. anything they said could be used against them
c. the right to an attorney
d. if they could not afford an attorney, one would be appointed
3. Mapp, Miranda and other cases caused great controversy
a. police claimed Court had "handcuffed" their fight against crime
b. conservatives accused the Court of favoring criminals' rights over
rights of victims and law-abiding citizens
B. The cops and civil rights
1. Civil rights movement-1960s
a. challenged race discrimination
b. civil rights groups attacked race discrimination and physical brutality
by the police
c. deadly force studies found that police officers shot and killed
African-Americans about eight times as often as white citizens
d. African-Americans were underrepresented as police officers
e. conflict between police and black communities sparked nationwide race riots
2. Response
a. establishment of police-community relations (PCR) units
b. demand for the hiring of African-American officers
c. demand for creation of citizen review boards
C. The police in the national spotlight
1. American Bar Foundation (ABF) study: findings
a. officers exercised broad discretion
b. most police work involved noncriminal activity
2. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice
a. endorsed agenda of professionalization
i. higher recruitment standards
ii. more training
iii. better management and supervision
b. sponsored pioneering research
3. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission)
a. created after 1967 riots to study race relations
b. found deep hostility between police and ghetto communities
c. recommendations
i. change police operations to ensure proper individual conduct
and to eliminate abusive practices
ii. hire more African-American officers
iii. departments improve procedures for handling citizen complaints
d. raised questions about traditional assumptions of professionalization
i. noted many disturbances took place in cities where police were
the most professional, best trained, best lead, etc.
ii. patrol car alienated officer from ordinary citizens
iii. aggressive crime-fighting caused tension
4. American Bar Association (ABA)--Standards Relating to the Urban Police Function
a. recognized police as primarily "peacekeepers" rather than "crimefighters"
b. emphasized the need to control officer discretion
5. Police research
a. Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment (1972-1973)
i. one of the most important research projects ever conducted
ii. tested the effect of different levels of patrol
iii. increased patrol did not reduce crime
iv. increased patrol had no significant effect on public awareness
about police presence
v. reduced patrol did not lead to an increase in crime or fear of crime
vi. challenged basic assumptions about effect of patrol on crime
b. Other research
i. questioned the value of rapid police response
ii. faster response times did not lead to more arrests
iii. few calls involved crimes in progress
iv. most victims did not call the police immediately
c. Rand Corporation--study of criminal investigation
i. destroyed traditional myths about detective work
ii. follow-up investigations are very unproductive
iii. most crimes are solved through information obtained by the
first officer on the scene
iv. most detective work is boring, routine, paperwork
D. The research revolution
1. Research on police attitudes and behavior
a. William Westley--identified distinct subculture, characterized by
hostility toward the public, group solidarity and secrecy
b. Jerome Skolnick-policing has a distinct working environment
i. dominated by danger and exercise of authority
ii. officers might violate legal procedures under pressure to
achieve results
(EX: arrests, convictions)
c. studies found that officer attitudes were shaped by nature of police
work, not individual characteristics
2. Research affected reform efforts
a. destroyed traditional assumptions about policing
b. had adverse consequences for police community relations
c. police reform at a "standstill" by the early 1970s
X. New developments in policing, 1970-2000
A. The changing police officer
1. Profile of police officer changed significantly between 1960s-1990
2. Increased racial and ethnic minority representation
3. Increased female representation
a. largely due to 1964 Civil Rights Act and women's movement
4. Better educated officers
5. Training improvements
a. increase in pre-service training
b. broader curriculum (EX: race relations, domestic violence, ethics)
c. by 1970s, every state had mandatory training
B. The control of police discretion
1. Basis of control
a. Supreme Court decisions
b. minority community protests
c. lawsuits
2. Results
a. procedures instituted to control on-the-street police behavior
b. written policies governing police work
(EX: search and search, deadly force, domestic violence, high speed pursuits)
3. Reforms
a. deadly force
i. police shoot eight African-Americans for every one citizen[MHE1]
ii. most departments had no policy or relied on fleeing felon rule
iii. early 1970s--adopted more restrictive defense of life rule
iv. enacted reforms reduced number of citizens killed by police
b. domestic violence
i. lawsuits filed for failure to arrest men who committed domestic assault
ii. lawsuits prompted policies prescribing mandatory arrest
C. Police unions
1. Spread rapidly in the 1960s
2. Impact on police administration
a. salary and benefits improvements
b. protection of officers' rights in disciplinary hearings
c. reduced power of police chiefs
3. Reformers alarmed by the growth of unions--unions tended to resist innovation
and were hostile toward police-community relations
D. Citizen oversight of police
1. Citizen review of complaints--major demand of civil rights groups in 1960s
2. By 2000, over 100 citizen oversight procedures in the U.S.
3. Many varieties of citizen oversight agencies
E. Community policing and problem-oriented policing
1. New developments in policing in 1980s and 1990s
2. Community policing
a. police develop partnerships with residents
b. develop programs tailored for specific problems
c. give rank and file more freedom to handle problems
(EX: Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS))
3. Wilson and Kelling--Broken Windows
a. suggested police could not fight crime themselves; they are dependent
on citizens
b. police could reduce fear by focusing on "quality of life" issues
4. Problem-oriented policing
a. police address specific problems and create responses to each one
b. police function as "problem-solvers," "planners," not "crime-fighters"
(EX: Newport News, Virginia)
5. Hailed as a "new era" in policing
a. many departments received federal funds for community policing
b. difficult to assess effectiveness or impact of community policing
F. Race and ethnic conflict continues
1. Conflict between police and racial and ethnic minority groups reemerge in
late 1990s
2. Rodney King (1991)
3. New York City (1997): Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo
4. Los Angeles (1999) : Rampart Scandal
5. Driving while black (DWB)
a. "racial profiling"--civil rights leader charge that police stop
African Americans solely on the basis of their race
b. focus for corrective action--traffic stop data collection
c. growing number of police agencies collect data
6. Possible reasons for existing police misconduct
a. some departments have moved toward accountability, while others have not
b. police problems are "contextual", concentrated in certain departments,
practices, and officers
c. rise in public expectations as departments are now held to higher standards
XI. Conclusion: The lessons of the past
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education