Police Force In Colonial America

Looking briefly at the history of the American police, the police force is structure based off the English boobies in the 18th century. Drawing heavily on English practice, the United States police force had a rocky start. “Crime-particularly crimes like murder, robbery, rape, and burglary…was rare in the earliest colonies…this was largely due to the fact that they were settles by small and fairly homogeneous groups…”(Vila page 2). Not only did the police force have little to now power or structure in the early years, but also they were not needed in the colonies. The first city to create a police department was the New York City in the 19th century.
As more people migrated to the New World and into the cities, a police force was needed to keep the peace. As the police force started to form, key difference in why police were need in the south and north started to show. In the North, the issues they were facing were an increased immigration population moving into the larger cities and in the south runaway slaves. Slave patrols (or “paddyrollers”) were created to manage the race-based conflict occurring in the southern region of Colonial America; these patrols were created with the specific intent
of maintaining control over slave populations," (The History of the Police).
In the past few years there have been many cases where the police have been in the spotlight in the media and most of the stories have not been positive.
Stories about questionable shootings and treatment towards citizens. When answering the question on if United States is violating any international laws, the topic of what is police Brutality, is important because in the past few years the topic of what kind of kind of forces police should be using. It is an act of misconduct done by a member of law enforcement through the use of extreme amount of force to physical, mentally, or emotionally attacks a member of society. According to David Packman, prepared for the Cato Institute in 2001, “…states that 247 deaths ere linked to police misconduct cases,” (Packman
2001). The media In United States, are always looking for the next big story to air on TV, newspaper, or even online. Media is an important source for people to get their daily report on what is happening within the nation and in the world. The one thing to get clear is that the police force put them self in danger to protect and serve a nation of people who do or do not care for them. But, what is police misconduct and how is it defined? According to Champion, “Police misconduct is any inappropriate behavior on the part of any law enforcement officer that is either illegal or immoral or both,” (2). The media
Another factor in understanding police brutality is the advancements in technology. Technology was a key factor in the continue creating of the police force. It is still playing a major role in today’s police department. Today technology can be found everywhere from the way everyone is always connected all the time. Author Vila stated, “Technological changes also presented police with new opportunities and challenges as airplanes, radio and telephone communication, and new scientific techniques became more widely available,” (Vila 76). Twenty year ago, there was no smart phones or reliable video cameras. In the 21st century all the past technology can fit inside everyone packet in the shape of a smart phone. These technologies are presenting problems and solving problems all around the world. With the use of smart phones people are able to capture all sorts of events from all around the world. Cameras can be found everywhere now todays and the problem which stems from this is any negative encounter by the police are being capture on the film.