The idea of establishing a means of maintaining the peace within a group of people is not unique to modern
man. Humans have placed an importance on keeping order since prehistoric times. The manner in which a particular culture’s
moral codes, social structure and laws have been enforced continues to be an evolving process.
Persons utilized as enforcers of the law, in times of old, were not ordained with titles as such. The laws
and decrees passed down by rulers were enforced by soldiers, not by police officers as we know them today. Many times a military
detail would be exclusively responsible for maintaining law and order in any area in which it was stationed. Perhaps the primary
difference in law enforcement and military duties is their respective purposes: the military exists to conquer armies and
protect borders at the bequest of its leaders; law enforcement personnel have the duty to investigate crime, prevent breaches
of the peace and resolve situations in a manner which ensures safety and preserves life. In an historical context bygone cultures
drew no such distinctions.
An important part of any culture’s history is the evolution of its system of laws and those charged
with the duty of enforcing them. That process in which the system of laws and law enforcers are nurtured and honed has produced
a specialized professional unlike anything before.
Law and Order in the Ancient World
The first approximation of enforcing laws existed at the dawning of the cave-dwellers. A tribe or clan of
people were expected to maintain their social order and group mores by means of individual responsibility to the group—a
system of law enforcement that would reemerge in the Dark Ages in Europe centuries later.
It was incumbent upon each member of the tribe to follow certain rules, dictated by a chief, or face such
punishments as ostracization, banishment, torture or even death. The tribal chief was the maker of laws and often solely decided
the proper punishment when a member of the tribe broke a law. In some ancient cultures, a crime against an individual might
be adjudicated by the victim and/or his family.
Some of the earliest written records came from the land of Sumer, located in present day area of the Tigris-Euphrates
river valley. Many of these records date as far back as 2300 BC and give glimpses of the ancient people’s laws and punishments.
In 2200 BC, just a hundred years later, official law would be established by King Hammurabi in his Code of Hammurabi.
This codification, advising of such things as liabilities for inadequate home construction, established the legal principle
of lex talionis—an eye for an eye punishment.
One of the world’s first regimented courts systems was established in Egypt, roughly in 1500 BC. A number
of courts were created and presided over by judges appointed by the Pharaoh himself. Officers of the court who performed law
enforcement type duties carried wooden staffs topped with metal pommels inscribed with the Pharaoh’s name as a sign
of their authority. These ornate staffs were the forerunners of the modern batons carried by law enforcement officers throughout
the world today.
At about the time of Christ, the Roman Praetorian Guard—appointed by the Roman ruler Augustus
Caesar—served a quasi-law enforcement role in areas conquered by Rome. During Caesar’s tenure, the vigiles
were created and placed in roles as both fire fighters and law enforcement personnel. Their vigilant watch over Rome and other
cities helped maintain security and avoid catastrophic fires.
The Early Foundations: Tithing and Frankpledge Systems
As the Dark Ages were disappearing and Rome’s occupation of Great Britain ebbed, Germanic invaders entered
England. As with any new occupiers, the Germanic people brought with them their own laws and customs. Intermarriage between
native Englanders and the Germanic people produced the stalwart Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons fostered the growth of self-governing
farming communities.
During the reign of Alfred the Great (849-899) all freemen were obliged to belong to an association that bound
them to other groups of people throughout the British Isles. It became law that if an individual from one particular group
was convicted of a crime, the entire group was held responsible for paying the fine. This type of self-governing system encouraged
group members to be watchful of each other’s activities. This would be the rudiments of what we’d come to understand
as citizen’s arrest.
Called the Tithing System, all males over the age of 12 were placed into groups of ten men—a
tithing. The chief of a tithing was referred to as a "tithing man." Ten groups of tithings were called a hundred. A
hundred would be headed by a "hundred man" or what would later be called a "constable." Groups of hundreds were categorized
as a shire. The leader of a shire, responsible for all law enforcement activities within his jurisdiction, was called
a "reeve" or "shire-reeve." The term shire-reeve would finally be modernized into the word "sheriff."
The shire-reeve was both a law enforcer and a judge, traveling from hundred to hundred to conduct his business.
It was within his authority to convene a posse comitatus, whereas he would gather men from with his shire to search
for absconding lawbreakers. The idea of organizing a posse would be reintroduced in the mid-19th century in the American West,
as any fan of old westerns can attest.
After the invasion of the Norman ruler William the Conqueror in 1066, the tithing system was modified into
the Frankpledge System. William divided his kingdom into 55 distinct military districts, each headed by a shire-reeve
who answered directly to him, ensuring absolute loyalty to the crown. One of the changes William made was to refashion the
duties of the shire-reeves into strictly law enforcement activities, as judges were appointed separately to oversee judicial
proceedings. This was a move toward a more modern separation of authority in the law enforcement and judicial systems used
today.
In 1285, King Edward I established a night watch program as well as his Statute of Winchester,
which was the first institution of modern common law. Men were hired as night watchmen to enforce the curfew and guard the
gates of the king’s castle. King Edward further decreed that groups of 100 merchants would be responsible for maintaining
his law and preservation of peace in their respective districts. This particular system is known as the Watch and Ward
System. This created a 24-hours per day watch in each district.
In the 14th century, the shire-reeves were replaced by justices of the peace. This newly
created position was assisted by constables. Originally, justices of the peace had law enforcement responsibilities but later
those duties would be judicial in nature.
As the feudal era ended, the Church took a more prominent role in the creation and enforcement of the law.
Those antiquated groups of hundreds were slowly changed into parishes. Each parish represented groups of people belonging
to a specific church and a constable was appointed in each parish to oversee all law enforcement activities. This form of
law enforcement would remain intact in England until the 18th century.
Policing in Colonial America
In New York—known in the early colonial period as New Amsterdam because of the large constituency of
Dutch settlers—the burgher guard were formed to protect the settlement in 1643. Ten years later, the burgher
guard changed to the rattle watch, a group of volunteers who carried loud rattles to summon assistance.
England took over New Amsterdam in 1664 and renamed it New York. It would be near the turn of the century
before the rattle watch was replaced by a uniformed police force.
Boston established its first night watch program in 1635 (some date it as early as 1631) and consisted of
six watchmen, one constable and hundreds of volunteers. Their primary duty was to keep watch on the town from "sundown to
sunup" which included ringing a bell if any fires were discovered. By 1735, the Boston night watchmen were required to call
out the time of the day and give a brief description of weather conditions.
These colonial law enforcers served part-time and usually without any financial compensation. It would be
in the early 18th century before full-time, paid law enforcement officers would be appointed by Boston officials.
Philadelphia would also establish its own police force at about the same time.
The colonial watchman system of policing has been characterized as being on the basis of hue and cry
which some believe made for relatively impotent law enforcement. It was not unusual that petty criminals were sentenced to
serve as night watchmen lieu of a fine or other punishment. In some areas, citizens were required a turn at being a watchman.
This duty was loathed by more than a few. It was common for the obliged to look for ways of getting out their required duty.
Many people, especially those with some means, hired others in their stead. Some of the hired watchmen were vagrants and ne’er-do-wells,
making corruption a real but unfortunate part of the system.
Watchmen were often viewed as dimwits and dullards, as the corruption of the system by using undesirables
would tend to do to a particular occupation. In some areas, they were given the derogatory nickname leather heads.
At about this time in colonial history, another more specialized police force was established. Throughout
the southern colonies, slave patrols were created by the early 1700s. Special laws were enacted for control of slave behavior
and activities. To enforce these laws, slave patrols took swift and sometimes inhumane actions against offenders. They were
granted the authority to enter slave dwellings and search the premises and all slaves within it at will. They also patrolled
areas looking for runaway slaves and often meted out tortuous punishments to those they found violating the slave code.
The Carolina colony’s slave patrol of 1704 serves as a paradigm for the modern principle of police
beat. Each member of the patrol was responsible for knowing every inch of his 15-square mile area. In many of the southern
colonies, the role of sheriff would be revised and in later years become a very important part of American law enforcement,
especially in the rural territories west of New England.
England’s Crucial Contribution to Modern Policing
In 1748, Henry Fielding, a novelist and attorney, was appointed as chief magistrate of Bow Street in London.
Fielding saw a need for law and order in this city that had no professional and official law enforcement. Eventually, he helped
in the creation of the Bow Street Runners. Viewed today as the first detective force, the Bow Street Runners investigated
crimes using a somewhat more scientific method than their predecessors. They would be the first law enforcement unit to utilize
forensics, though in its unpolished and intrepid infancy, and hand out newsletters with information about crimes and suspects
in hopes of garnering public assistance in capturing law breakers. The Bow Street Runners would be expanded in the future
to include armed foot and horse patrols.
In 1829, Sir Robert Peel, considered the father of modern policing, proposed a modified return to law and
order responsibilities being placed on individual communities. Peel initiated a number of policing principles that culminated
in the establishment of the Metropolitan Police of London. Many of Peel’s principles are the basis for modern police
procedure, for instance, hiring police officers on a probationary basis and securing and training "proper" persons. Training
had almost always been administered only to military personnel, not civilian law enforcement. The first London police were
headquartered in a building that had formerly housed Scottish nobility, thus the term Scotland Yard has been used as
another name for the Metropolitan Police of London. The officers under Peel were originally nicknamed "Peelers" but would
more famously be known as "Bobbies." They were issued uniforms for easy identification by each other and citizens in need
of assistance. The first London police uniform consisted of a top hat, three-quarter length blue tailcoat, white trousers
and armed only with a truncheon.
One of Peel’s most famous statements is that "the police are the public and the public are the police,"
which remains as the basic credo and foundation of all community-based policing programs today. Professionalism and community-oriented
police functions were a large part of Peel’s plan for enforcing the law. While police agencies throughout the world
have deviated from professional law enforcement practices from time to time since Peel’s era, Scotland Yard still stands
as being one of the most revered police departments in the world.
Establishment of Professional Law Enforcement in the United States
New York City established a paid day watch force consisting of 16 officers in 1844. These day watchmen were
a distinct and separate unit from the night watchmen. Much friction between the two forces created a unique problem for the
city’s legislators. There was a movement among city leaders for consideration of patterning their police department
on the London model. Trying to garner a better understanding of how to organize and operate an efficient law enforcement agency,
New York City legislators made a trek to England to study the British counterpart up close and personally. Duly impressed
with what they had seen, the city leaders returned to New York and began making changes that would create the early version
of the New York City Police Department we know today. Not long afterward, other American cities acted similarly, including
Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco.
It would be another 12 years later before the NYPD adopted a full uniform. The Detroit Police Department established
the first detective unit in the U.S. in 1866.
As an interesting side note, police officers in New York City had a variety of duties that seem to have nothing
to do with enforcing the law. Some of those responsibilities included licensing steam boilers, cleaning streets and inspecting
tenement housing.
Though American cities sought to make their own respective departments clones of Scotland Yard, two major
differences were that police in the United States were armed with firearms and not under the control of the federal government.
Police communications was very difficult in the early history of American law enforcement. As mentioned earlier,
rattles were one of the first forms of communications police had at their disposal. Later, these rattles would be replaced
by whistles. In the 1850s, telegraph networks were being linked from individual police districts to their headquarters. Many
years later a telegraph system was available to patrol officers for contacting their stations.
Call boxes would go on to replace the telegraph. The first call boxes had a lever that when activated would
notify the station that an officer was at his post. This would evolve into telephones at specific district locations that
sometimes had lights at the top of the post. The illuminated light would signify to a patrol officer that he had a call pending
and needed to call in for details. Still in use today, with many modifications and improvements, are two-way radio systems
that replaced the call boxes and telephone stations.
The first federal law enforcement agency is the U.S. Marshals Service, created in 1789. This federal agency,
which still exists today, has the duties of carrying out various services for federal courts, providing security, serving
warrants, subpoenas and seizing property ordered to be confiscated by the court.
According to some historians, the first state police agency established was the Texas Rangers in 1835, created
to combat cattle rustling by Mexican cattle thieves, as well as border patrol duties. In 1874, the Texas Rangers were commissioned
as police officers in the state of Texas and given additional duties such as tracking down absconders. Since the Texas Rangers
were considered to be quasi-military initially, some historians credit the state of Massachusetts with creating the first
state police agency. In 1865, Massachusetts established their state police whose primary duty at that time was controlling
vice crime.
From about the mid-19th century to around 1930, policing in the United States was centered in a political
arena. As a general rule, police were authorized by politicians and would all-too-often act on behalf of a political party.
In New York City, for example, officers served one or two year appointments and always at the discretion of politicians. Law
enforcement officers frequently acceded to unethical or criminal behavior to curry favor with their political allies and those
who appointed them into police service. Political partisans often interfered in police departments by appointing relatives
and friends to key positions with the agency. It was not uncommon for promotions or special assignments to be handed out to
those who gave local politicians immunity from certain crimes. At one point, key positions were even sold by politicians.
This began a cycle of corruption in many cities throughout the country.
One person who sought to change the corruptive influences in police work was none other than Theodore "Teddy"
Roosevelt. In 1895, Roosevelt as president of the New York City Police Commission set new standards for the police department.
Disciplinary procedures were established, as well as a reorganization of the detective bureau. This reorganization would lead
to the adoption of the Bertillon system, which identified criminals by bone structure measurements, a forerunner of the venerated
fingerprint identification system in use today.
Ever progressive, Roosevelt and his Commission colleagues also instituted marksmanship training for officers,
regular inspections of firearms and physical exams. During Roosevelt’s two year term, he saw over 1,500 officers appointed
to the department by way of being qualified, not because of some political influence. It was under his aegis that the first
woman was hired to work in the department headquarters in an administrative position.
Minorities and Women in Law Enforcement
Minorities began entering into law enforcement as early as 1861 in Washington, D.C. By 1900, minorities made
up 2.7 percent of all watchmen, policemen and firefighters. The percentage declined more than half by 1910. Minority police
officers would discover much discrimination and segregation within their own departments, as well as outside their jobs. It
was not uncommon that black officers were issued patrol cars with the conspicuous words "Colored Police" inscribed on the
doors. Black officers were almost always assigned to minority neighborhoods and many times were only allowed to arrest other
blacks.
The first woman to be appointed as a police officer was Marie Owens in 1883. She was hired by the Detroit
Police Department and set a precedent that conveyed the message that women could be effective officers in a changing and modernizing
law enforcement agency. By 1920, over 200 cities around the nation followed Detroit’s example and began employing female
police officers.
An Era of Change in American Law Enforcement
Beginning around 1930, there was a general movement toward reformation of law enforcement. The idea was to
get politics out of policing and apply all efforts at professionalizing officers, marrying scientific methodology with crime
solving.
A major change which has affected today’s proud law enforcement tradition is the specialization of services.
Police officers of the time shared similar duties and few had any special skills to differentiate them from any other officer.
With the advent of science and crime statistics, law enforcement agencies slowly came to the realization that to have an efficient
department it must be diverse. Detective bureaus, crime scene units, patrol, traffic enforcement, process service, special
weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams and undercover units are but a few of the divisions within law enforcement in practice today.
The quality of law enforcement officers have changed with the times as well. There’s little disagreement
among police historians that the Great Depression bolstered police recruitment with an influx of educated recruits, especially
in large urban areas such as New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Jobs were scarce at that time and forced educated people, who
might’ve otherwise worked as engineers or in other professions, to join the police force. Many agencies throughout the
country now have a minimum educational requirement that would’ve been scoffed at decades earlier.
Weaponry and means of communications in law enforcement have also made significant strides. Where muskets,
truncheons and swords were once the weapons du jour, semi-automatic handguns, electrical devices and chemical sprays
are found on the duty belts of police officers today. Police officers in large cities are connected by not only radio but
electronically by computer terminals in patrol cars now.
While politics may not have been entirely erased out of law enforcement, its influence has greatly diminished.
Today’s officers are taught to think as team members and as individuals, to accept responsibilities without regard to
politics, gender, race, religion or any other irrelevant factor. Thanks to professional police organizations, state-of-the-art
training and equipment, and individual ethics, law enforcement officers have become specialists in criminal detection and
apprehension and continue as professionals in a field that is abundant in history and tradition.
