Law Enforcement Eras

Law enforcement has been around since the dawn of man, and since that day it has been an ever evolving and adapting living thing. This is to meet the needs of those who are under its protection. Different styles of law can be dated back all the way to the cave dwellers, from there the Sumerian Rulers, Lipitshtar and Eshuma which set standards on what constituted an offense against ones society. As the times went on the need for more standardized laws were created and mandated for larger communities of people. Rome noted the need for more than just the palace guard, and with that they gave their firefighters legal responsivities. As the first civilian police force the “vigils” kept the “peace” and did so quite violently. This is where the term
vigilante came from. This vigilance and enforcement was the first and most effective form law enforcement these people received. This forcefull style of law enforcing is considered traditional or contemporary. As times went on and the peoples need for law enforcement changed the style of law enforcement began to change to. In the book “Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice” goes as far to list out three specific Eras of policing. These eras are the political era, the reform or professional era and then the community era.
In a short overview, the political era was recognized as the first official era of policing running from 1840 until 1930, this era was named from the policing coming from the laws and politicians. This system used a very visible use of foot patrols and needed a strong intimate relationship with the people. The reform or professional era was from 1930 through 1980, where the authority was given by the law and professionalism. During this period crime control was the main goal of law enforcement officers. This past way seemed very reactive towards crime. We are now currently in the community era, an era where law enforcement and the community are trying to become one. The law needs the communities support and law enforcement is more involved within the community than ever. These officers are trying to be more proactive and show problem solving skills to better their communities as a whole. The communities are made up of the people we are sworn to protect and those are the people the policing powers are truly derived
from. Policing and the people have always ran hand in hand, the authority comes from the people, even though the power to the police of granted by the tenth amendment without the people and their institutions there would be nothing to police. In today’s society the policing agencies use both contemporary policing styles along with a “newer” community based policing style.
Contemporary policing has been considered the “traditional style” of policing it is reactive, incident driven, uses the criminal justice system for its structure, and uses statistics to support its claims, along with showing any progress it has made. Being reactive is when the police respond to specific request from individuals or the community, but this also includes the presence of officers whether it be in cars or on foot patrols. (There is little to no initiative on the officer or organizations behalf to prevent a crime they are just simply there.) These officers are considered to be incident driven; once an incident has occurred they are dispatched out to the scene and go from there. After that point they solely depend on the criminal justice department to use the court system to do their part. This style of policing usually leads to little to no community involvement, disappointed citizens, and the need for specialized units such as task forces.
This contemporary style policing has a very limited relationship between officers and the public in which they are there to serve, virtually building up barriers as time goes on.
These officers success is based solely on numbers, crime rates, and citizen’s satisfaction with the police officers. The relationship between the officer and the public is strictly on a professional level and those officers are rarely seen on the streets. These officers are usually viewed as outsiders and with that there is little community involvement. Where community based policing is virtually the opposite.
Community based policing however, searches for the underlying cause that is creating a problem, being proactive instead of reactive, and overall more of a problem solving structure. This includes the elimination of what might be causing the issue, reduction of potential issues, reducing the seriousness of the issue, designing measure that will better handle and prepare for the problem.
Community based policing has regular contact between the officers and the community. The level of success is based on the decreased amount of fear the people of these officer’s community feel, along with a decreased crime rate. This must be a department wide philosophy in order to be effective and successful. The foot patrol officer must specially be involved, being not only the backbone of the department but also the main source of law enforcement interaction the average citizen’s sees day in and day
out.
With this structure not only do the citizen’s win but the local law enforcement agents do too. With the people feeling better about the police and not being frightened by them the cooperation level will sky rocket. This should create a pyramid effect to minimize crime issues in the long run. The officers in this community most importantly becomes an involved member of society and are considered to be trusted by those they have sworn to protect.
Here in the small town of Appleton, Minnesota, there are less than a handful of full time police officers, matter in fact the majority of the officers on our department are part time individuals from the Swift County Sheriff’s Office. According to Doug Moe, Appleton’s Police Chief, “The police department contains only two fulltime officers, himself-the chief, and nine part timers. With this being the case the only effective policing method we can afford is with the community’s full involvement.” Another officer on the APD, Cody Thompson, brought to my attention that in a town where everyone knows everybody making enemies really is not an option. The moment we start creating an “us vs them” situation the Appleton Police Department has already lost.
Both of these policing styles have their place in today’s society and most law enforcement agencies are using a combination of both to try find the perfect mixture for their community. While contemporary or traditional style law enforcement has been around since the dawn of mankind and has been used to enforce the laws of the people the community style enforcement is becoming more popular, along with being more popular it is turning out to be more effective. The community enforcement has been decreasing crime rates while increasing relationships between law enforcement agencies and the people they are there for.