Police History and Function Paper

Police History Paper

NAME

CJA/ 214

Police History Paper

American policing has grown from a range of political, economic, and societal forces. Policing has been categorized into three eras which are: Political Era, Reform Era, and Community Problem-Solving Era which is the present form of policing. The police role in society has always been an authority role. The role of the police in today’s society is to sustain law and order, give community assistance, and investigate crimes. The police are put into place to protect citizens, prevent crime before it happens, and solve crime that has already taken place. Police are there to know the law, understand the law, enforce the law, bring peace to the community, and have a strong presence in the community.

Impact of Sir Robert Peel on American Policing

The impact Sir Robert Peel had on American policing is significant and is used in policing today, the elements that Peel develop are used to provide safety, and service to all citizens and communities throughout the world. Sir Robert Peel served as Home Secretary in 1891and created the metropolitan police in 1829. According to Peel the key to policing is that “the police are the people and the people are the police.” Walker and Katz (2011) stated Robert Peel believed that you can contain crime without invading the lives of citizens. In developing the Metropolitan police, he developed nine principles in police theory. The nine principles created by Robert Peel are still used today in the United States. These fundamental parts of policing are revolved around community policing efforts, extensive training in problem analysis and solving, facilitation, community organization, mediation, conflict resolution, resource identification and use, networking, and cross- cultural understanding (Chapter 2).

Community policing is based on the prevention of crime and to promote policing partners. Community policing promotes trusts with the community, government and other law enforcement agencies. Community policing is a main focus in law enforcement today, Sir Peels’ principles discussed public approval, as it will help increase the effectiveness of law enforcement. Creating a relationship with the community, gaining trust from citizens, shared responsibility, and accountability for the reason of preventing crime continues to be a goal in policing today. Sir peels’ goals were to prevent crime and promote better policing through community affiliations. The functions of most police organizations today is characterized as crime prevention and law enforcement. The phrase “protect and serve” refers to Sir Peels’ principle, for which the police subsist, is to prevent crime and disorder. American Policing is a product of its English heritage, (Walker & Katz, 2011, pg 24) the English heritage contributed three enduring features to American policing. 

U.S. Governments and Police Organizations

There are two levels of police in the United States: Federal and State. The Federal Level includes organizations that are all under Homeland Security. According to Homeland security research, the U.S. federal Homeland Security and Homeland Defense includes 187 federal agencies and departments, the United States Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigations the 14 agencies that constitute the U.S. intelligence community and Civil Air Patrol. For example some of their responsibilities are to protect civil liberties, regulate tobacco, alcohol, firearms and explosives industries, safeguard the payment and financial systems of the United States, prevent the entry of terrorists and terrorist weapons, protect the maritime economy and the environment and promote homeland security and public safety (DHS, 2014). 

In the University of Phoenix simulation (2014), the State level has three Sub-levels of police: State police, county sheriff and local police. State police, also known as Highway Patrol, have jurisdiction across the whole state but primarily patrol freeways and state government buildings. County sheriffs operate county jails and prisons and patrol unincorporated areas in a region. Local police serve cities and patrol within the city limits.

The relationship between the police and government is determined by the level of the police organization. Federal policing organizations are subjected to being managed by congress and laws that are put in place. Federal agencies have the conscientiousness of going after tax-related laws and criminals who operate between States. State policing organizations are under the control of the State government. They are subject to the limitations of state law. The power of State and the power of Federal government play a momentous role in shaping the relationship between the policing organizations in the United States government. Despite limitations in the constitution in terms of State sovereignty, there have been scenarios whereby the different policing levels have clashed due to a different State and Federal interests (Walker & Katz, 2011). This poses the risk of higher criminal activities, because of the ineffectiveness of alliance within policing organizations.

Conclusion

Policing has progressed to preserve social solidity. Although the crime rates continue to decrease, there is still some disquiet as how to maintain the laws. Policing will continue to advance as it has in the last three centuries from Sir Robert Peel, the father and founder of modern policing, to the current day community-based policing. Policing agencies will continue to find ways to modify the errors in the policing ideology of today. 

Reference

Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2011). The Police in America. An Introduction (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Department of Homeland Security. (2014). Department Components. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/department-components

University of Phoenix . (2014). Levels of Law Enforcement [Multimedia]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix , CJA214- Introduction to Police Theory and Practice website.