Historical Foundations of Policing

In order to keep order in society there is a need for law enforcement. Since the beginning of time, man has created ways to protect citizens and communities. The most common way of doing that is with the police force. The police today are employed by the government and are usually very distinct from regular citizens since they wear uniforms in most cases. There are many different types of law enforcement officers, the most common ones are “local police officers, county deputies, state highway patrol troopers, or federal agents” (The Police An Introduction 28) We have a total of approximate 870,000 law enforcement officers in the United States that we have entrusted with many responsibilities to serve and protect us. The actual structure of the police could be very confusing to a regular citizen since they have private as well as public police and we the regular citizens may not know how to make a distinction between the two. (Paraphrased from The Police An Introduction 28) Early American Policing (1600- 1860): In the seventeenth century, people were still under the Middle Ages thinking. The government task was to provide economic balance protecting the people from invaders trying to take the local jobs. This way of thinking lasted until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century when people begin to realize the opportunity for wealth and growth. The government built early America by providing streets, canals and of course the railways. (The Police An Introduction 36)
Urban Growth and the need for police: The United States attracted many people to migrate to it because of the freedom and opportunities the land offers. This happened increasingly during the beginning of our homeland. This time in our history is marked with riots, violence and public disorder. Some of the recognized riots are “the protest over the Stamp Act of 1765, the Boston Massacre of 1770, and the Boston Tea Party of 1773.” (The Police An Introduction 37) Benjamin Franklin organized

Cited: Lyman, Michael D. “The Police An introduction”. Third edition. New Jersey, 2006.