Chapter 1

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# Chapter 1:  
# Origins and Evolution of American Policing

[Justin Nix](https://jnix.netlify.app)  
*School of Criminology and Criminal Justice*  
*University of Nebraska Omaha*

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.white[February 1, 2022]

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# Before we begin...

## Take this quick [survey](https://unomaha.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eILhS73Apjt7Q3k)

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# From Private to Public Policing

???

**Kin policing**
- Families, clans, and tribes that enforced informal rules and customs
- Each member of the group was given authority to enforce the established rules
- Those who deviated from community norms were dealt with harshly

Private policing gave way to public policing with the rise of Greek city-states and the Roman empire
- This gave way to a more formalized *night watch* of citizens appointed by the king to look for trouble in the streets

Around 12th century this gave way to the “frankpledge system”
- 10 houses grouped into a “tithing”
- Adult male of household responsible for conduct of others
- 10 tithings = parish
- Group of parishes = shire
- Origin of the term *sheriff*
  - “Shire-reeve” = “keeper of the shire”
      
- **Bow Street**: founded by magistrates John & Henry Fielding
- Paid constables to patrol on foot/horseback. First known detective unit

- Earliest known models of policing

- "Kin policing"

- Night watch

- "Frankpledge system"

- Bow Street Runners

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# The Influence of the English Model

???

1822: British Home Secretary Peel was critical of the state of policing in London
- In 1829, he was largely responsible for the passage of Metro Police Act
  - AKA “Act for Improving the Police in and Near the Metropolis”
  - Created the world’s first large-scale, organized police force in London
  - Centralized and unified system of policing in England
- Metro Police adopted a military organizational model
  - Met with resistance at first, due to citizen concern that the line between policing & military would be too thin
  - But gradually accepted due to officers proper and professional behavior

- [Sir Robert Peel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel)

- Industrial Revolution, urbanization, and increasing crime

- [Metropolitan Police Act (1829)](https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5222&context=jclc&httpsredir=1&referer=)

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# The Influence of the English Model

???

Sir Robert Peel
- Responsible for creation of first large-scale, unified police force
- Emphasized the importance of *preventing* crime rather than simply responding to it (e.g., uniforms)

Basic role of police: Prevent crime and disorder.

**How does this differ from Bittner’s definition of the police function?**

- First to centralize, unify police force

- Emphasis on *prevention*

- E.G., uniforms to increase visibility and (in theory) deter crime

- Peel's [Nine Principles of Policing](https://www.sjpd.org/home/showpublisheddocument?id=284)

- At least...according to [textbooks](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.11.016)

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# Policing comes to America

???

**IN THE NORTH**  
- Volunteers ➡️ night watch ➡️ full-time, paid patrolmen

**IN THE SOUTH**
- Slave patrols comprised of volunteers were used to capture freed slaves
- No due process, and often used violence against captured slaves
- Dissolved after the end of the Civil War, but were an impetus to the KKK

**IN THE WEST**
- Sheriffs and marshals appointed by town leaders, but they were unreliable at best. 
- Vigilantism often used to deal with those disrupting peace and order
- Texas Rangers protected settlers in the Tejas, Mexico area, and aided in the TX revolution against Mexico
- Laid groundwork for border patrol in AZ & NM, as well as state agencies throughout the southwest

- In the north...

- Appointed constables and citizen volunteers

- In the south...

- Slave patrols

- Expanding westward...

- Vigilantism  
  - Texas Rangers

- Organized police forces born out of perceived necessity

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# Policing comes to America

???

From 1850 to 1880, NYC grew so fast that almost 1 million people lived in the 2 sqmi center. 
- 300K lived on the east side without heat, fire protection, or toilet facilities
- Unemployment was high, sicknesses like cholera wiped out thousands at a time…

It’s no wonder that people stole, looted, and joined gangs in order to survive these rough conditions

In these early days, cities relied on volunteers to keep order. But this was obviously not **sustainable.**

- Immigration into urban centers

- Heavily influenced by Peel and London Metropolitan Police

- Key distinctions:

- No uniforms at first

- Significantly involved in/influenced by local politics

- More empowered to use physical coercion

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# Three Eras of Policing

- [Kelling and Moore (1988)](https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/114213.pdf) divide the history of U.S. policing into three eras:

1. The Political Era
  
--
  
  2. The Reform Era (aka Professional Era)

3. The Community Problem-Solving Era

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# The Political Era

???

First full-time, paid police department was established in NYC in 1844
- Initially only 16 officers, appointed by the mayor
- Expanded a year later to 800 officers, who divided the city into 3 precincts
- Over the next decade, there were eventually 18 separate forces that patrolled the area that = present day NYC
- In 1857, these were all consolidated into one NYPD, with ~6,400 officers
- Other major cities followed suit

Paramilitary organization

Political corruption
- Officers served the politically powerful, often having been appointed in exchange for votes
- They also tolerated certain crimes in exchange for info or bribes
  - NYPD Detective Thomas Byrnes accumulated over 350K in the 1890s (5 million in today $)
  - Teddy Roosevelt forced him to retire when he became Director
- Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall the most famous example of this system of political patronage

Ethnic conflict
- Used to control the rising number of immigrants

Foot patrol
- In 1880s Chicago, officers had ~3 mile beats to patrol on foot
- So Peel’s idea of a “continuous visible presence” was impossible
- And supervisors had no oversight over patrol officers

- Fear of urban street crime ➡️ demands for more police protection

- NYC establishes first full-time, paid police force circa 1844

- [Some argue](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police) it was actually Boston, circa 1838
  
--

- ...Curiously, the Boston Police Department's [website](https://bpdnews.com/history) doesn't mention this
  
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- Close relationship between police and political leaders

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  - Extreme corruption

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# The Reform Era

???

In major cities like New York, pressure from the right places to end corruption
- Subsequent appointment of people like Teddy Roosevelt to lead the NYPD
  - Surprise inspections, forcing out corrupt officers
- But these reform efforts largely floundered until Vollmer, because folks were too focused on throwing out bad apples instead of looking at systemic issues that contributed to corruption (such as the rank structure and promotion systems)

1929 Illinois Crime Survey and the 1931 Wickersham Commission (appointed by Hoover)
VOLLMER’s influence 
- Focus on rapid response  Hire more cops, Use bicycle & motorcycle patrols
- Efficient radio communication
- Fingerprinting
- Hiring college educated cops
- Created the Berkeley Police School in 1908

Great Depression ➡️ budget cuts ➡️ closing precincts and bringing them under command of one central station
- Consistent with Vollmer’s ideas of how to manage the police

- Circa 1930

- Public concern about corruption

- Influence of [August Vollmer](https://doi.org/10.2307/1139476)

- [State](https://homicide.northwestern.edu/docs_fk/homicide/ICS/ICS.pdf) and [Federal](https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/44540NCJRS.pdf) Crime Commissions

- Key takeaways:

- Need for professionalization

- Divorce policing from politics
  
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- The primary function of policing is *crime fighting*

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# The Community Problem-Solving Era

???

O.W. Wilson’s influence (Vollmer student)
- Started the nation’s first doctoral program in Criminology
- Wrote popular textbooks on police administration
- Advocated for one-, rather than two-officer, patrols in order to maximize coverage
- Late in his career (1960s), he was appointed to reform Chicago PD
  - Widespread firings, reorganization, diversifying

Research that challenged conventional wisdom:
- Increasing the # of officers in a neighborhood had little effect on the crime rate
- Rapid response did not greatly increase arrest rates
- Improving the % of crimes solved is difficult

President LBJ’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1967)

1968: CPD officers seen on TV beating protesters outside of the DNC

.pull-left[
- Circa late 1960s/early 1970s

- The influence of Vollmer's student, *O.W. Wilson*

- [Research](https://www.policefoundation.org/publication/the-kansas-city-preventive-patrol-experiment/) that challenged conventional wisdom

- [President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1967)](https://www.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh241/files/archives/ncjrs/42.pdf)

- 1968 [Democratic National Convention](https://time.com/5377386/1968-democratic-national-convention-protesters/)
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![lbj](LBJ.jpg)
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# The Community Problem-Solving Era

???

Professional model fell out of favor, and the Community Era emerged circa 1970
- Improve community relations, quality of life
- Improve officer morale by giving them more flexibility
- Improve communication between agencies

Broken Windows Theory
- Zimbardo’s experiment in Palo Alto & Bronx
- If poor community conditions (e.g., trash, graffiti, loitering) and minor offenses (e.g., drunk in public, prostitution, etc.) go unchecked, more and more serious crime will be allowed to flourish.

- Emphasis on:

- Building better relationships with communities
  
--

- Diversifying the police
  
--

- Proactively addressing *problems*
  
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- J. Q. Wilson & George Kelling (1982): [Broken Windows](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/)

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# The "Post-Ferguson" Era

- Police killing of Michael Brown in 2014

- Rapid growth of [Black Lives Matter](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html)

- [New data](https://www.fatalencounters.org) reveal police kill people much more frequently than FBI data had been showing

- President Obama's [Task Force on Policing in the 21st Century](https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-p341-pub.pdf)

- Diffusion of smartphones and [body-worn cameras](https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1098611120917937)

- Push for [data transparency](https://www.policedatainitiative.org/)

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# Have a great day! 😄

### *New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on Earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.*

<div style="text-align: right"> - Kurt Vonnegut </div>