Chapter 5: History and Structure of American Law Enforcement

START

Four blue-ribbon commissions studied the

police in the U.S. from 1967 to 1973. The

reports recommended:

END

Private Security's Role in the Fight Against Terrorism

Private security officers are often the first line of defense against terrorism in the United Sates. They guard government buildings, utilities, schools, courts, corporate headquarters, office complexes, laboratories, and transportation facilities.

Continued

Qualifications and training vary widely.

Diminished public responsibility - the government may not be living up to its responsibility to provide for the general welfare.

A number of unresolved problems and issues

hamper the private security industry:

Legal status and authority derive from the rights of the employer. Private security has few constitutional limitations and can be held civilly liable.

Public policing in a private capacity. Sworn officers often work for private companies, blurring the lines of responsibility and liability.

Issues Involving Private Security

continued on next slide

A number of factors have stimulated the

phenomenal growth of private security since

the 1970s:

Declining revenues for public policing.

The private nature of crimes in the workplace. Companies can control and hide crimes by employees.

Better control and attention to the problem, particularly within a business.

Fewer constitutional limitations on the actions of private security officers.

Reasons for Growth

In 2000, there were more than one million private security officers. A private security officer’s duties vary and depend on the employer’s particular needs.

Private security officers may protect:

Office buildings

Parking garages

Hospitals

Schools

Private Security Officers

In-house protective services that a security staff,

which is not classified as sworn peace officers,

provide for the entity that employs them.

Proprietary Security

Protective services that a private security firm provides to people, agencies, and companies that do not employ their own security personnel or that need extra protection.

Contract security employees are not peace officers.

Contract Security

Contract Security

Proprietary Security

In the American frontier, justice often meant

vigilantism. Self-protection remains very

popular in the South and West.

Southern Slave Patrols

Frontier Law Enforcement

In the South, the earliest form of policing was the plantation slave patrols.

Slave codes prohibited slaves from:

holding meetings.

leaving the plantation without permission.

traveling without a pass.

learning to read and write.

Slave patrols often whipped and terrorized slaves.

History of Blacks in Policing

American Private Security

Private security in the United States is a huge

enterprise.

It has been estimated that twice as many

people work in private security as in public

law enforcement.

American Private Security

Homeland Security Advisory System

For most of American history blacks who have wanted to be police officers have faced blatant discrimination and have generally been denied the opportunity.

The first black police officers in the United States were “free men of color.” They were hired around 1805 to serve as members of the New Orleans city watch system.

Until the 1920s in most American cities, local political leaders maintained complete control over the police force.

The political and police systems in many cities were corrupt; and jobs, politics, and law enforcement all depended on paying money to the right person.

Tangle of Politics and Policing

Private security employment is often

categorized two ways:

Contract Security

Example: security guards

hired for a college football game

continued on next slide

Proprietary Security

By 1910, there were fewer than 600 black police officers in the United States, and most of them were employed in northern cities.

It was not until the 1940s and 1950s that black police officers began to be hired routinely in most northern and southern U.S. cities.

History of Blacks in Policing

Example: the security force for a

corporation’s manufacturing plants

The earliest form of policing in the South.

They were a product of the slave codes.

Slave Patrols

Law Enforcement in the States and on the Frontier

Without large population centers to patrol, law enforcement was more likely to respond to specific situations:

Rounding up cattle rustlers

Capturing escaped slaves

The basic structure of police units with

broader responsibilities grew out of this system.

The Industrial Revolution brought a flood of

people to American cities, often immigrants.

Overcrowded and unhealthy living and

working conditions led to fights, brawls, and

riots.

continue on next slide

Law Enforcement in the Cities

Most police departments in the United States

employ fewer than 50 sworn officers.

Most police officers:

In 2000, 70.9 percent of full-time sworn officers were white men.

In 2000, a high school diploma or higher education was required by 83 percent of the local police departments.

In 1844, New York City created the first paid, unified police force in the U.S.

Other cities followed suit, creating their own police departments, often merely an organization of the existing day and night watch.

It was not until after the Civil War that police forces routinely began to wear uniforms, carry nightsticks and even carry firearms.

Municipal Police Forces

Municipal Police Departments

Law Enforcement in the Cities

Americans resisted the establishment of a

public police force.

Plainclothes watchmen did not try to prevent

or discover crime.

Growing populations, as well as the inability

of some local sheriffs and constables to

control crime, led states to create their own

law enforcement agencies.

Texas officially created the Rangers in 1835.

Pennsylvania established the first modern state law enforcement agency in 1905.

By the 1930s, every state had some form of state law enforcement agency.

State Police Agencies

The Development of American Law Enforcement

The United States has more police departments than any other nation in the world.

Virtually every community has its own police force, creating a great disparity in the quality of American police personnel and service.

Until the late nineteenth century, there were no qualifications required for law enforcement officers.

Cincinnati was the first city to require qualifications of police officers:

High moral character

Foot speed

The Department of Homeland

Security

Professionalism and Reform

One of the first efforts of DHS was the creation of a color-coded warning system to alert citizens to the likelihood of a terrorist attack.

Through the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement agencies at all levels of government, and vigilant American citizens, acts of terrorism can be prevented in the future.

Early American Law Enforcement

Settlers of the new American colonies brought with them the constable-watch system, which became common (although not necessarily effective) in cities.

In many rural areas, a sheriff and posse system was commonly used.

America developed with two separate law enforcement systems.

Robert Peel’s Principles of Policing

continue on next slide

The Department of Homeland

Security

It was not until the early 20th Century that reformers began advocating training and education for police officers.

Reformers also aimed to remove the police from political influences.

Professionalism and Reform

The Department of Homeland Security has five major divisions, or “directorates.”

The London Metropolitan Police

The police were organized around Peel’s

Principles of Policing.

The London Police were organized according to military rank and structure.

The police were under the command of two magistrates (later called commissioners).

The main function of the police was to prevent crime by preventive patrol of the community.

The London Metropolitan Police

The police became known as bobbies or

peelers after Robert Peel, the British Home Secretary, who had prodded Parliament for their creation.

The Department of Homeland

Security

The London Metropolitan Police

Monitor connections between illegal drug trafficking and terrorism, coordinate efforts to sever such connections, and otherwise contribute to efforts to interdict illegal drug trafficking.

The Industrial Revolution brought a huge influx of people into London, and along with them, increasing poverty, public disorder, and crime.

In 1829, Parliament created the London Metropolitan Police, a 1,000-member professional force.

Conflicting Roles

Careful selection of law enforcement officers.

Extensive and continuous training.

Better management and supervision.

The Bow Street Runners

In 1748, a London magistrate named Henry

Fielding (best known for his writings,

including the novel Tom Jones) founded the

first publicly funded detective force in a

district of London known as Bow Street.

The Bow Street Runners paved the way for a more professional response to crime.

In the nineteenth century, police acted as peacekeepers and social service agents, feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.

In the 1920s, police began to focus on crime-fighting.

In the 1960s, the civil rights movement often resulted in violent clashes between police and citizens.

Conflicting Roles

English Roots

The Department of Homeland

Security

Our familiar law enforcement system, in

which uniformed officers respond to calls for

help and plainclothes detectives investigate,

developed over hundreds of years in

England.

Ensure that the functions of the agencies and subdivisions within the department that are not related directly to securing the homeland are not diminished or neglected except by an explicit act of Congress.

Ensure the overall economic security of the United States is not diminished by efforts, activities, and programs aimed at securing the homeland.

Groups of able-bodied citizens of a community,

called into service by a sheriff or constable to

chase and apprehend offenders.

Citizens were drafted as (unpaid) watchmen, and were required to come to the aid of a constable or watchman who called for help.

Posses

One man from each parish was selected to be constable.

The Statute of Winchester, in 1285,

formalized the constable-watch system of

protection.

continued on next slide

The Constable-Watch System

In medieval England, the chief law enforcement

officer in a territorial area called a shire;

later called the sheriff.

Shire Reeve

The Structure of American Law Enforcement

The Tithing System

By the twelfth century in England, the

practice of resolving disputes privately gave

way to a system of group protection, called

the tithing system.

Tithing System

A private self-held protection system in early medieval

England, in which a group of ten families, or a tithing,

agreed to follow the law, keep the peace in their areas,

and bring law violators to justice.

Shire Reeve and Posses

The Constable-Watch System

Two elements of this system made their way

to the American colonies:

American law enforcement agencies are

extremely diverse in:

Jurisdictions.

Responsibilities.

Employers (hospitals, colleges, transit authorities may have their own police).

The people were the police.

The organization of the protection system was local.

Local Police Duties

Four categories of local police duties are:

Law enforcement —investigating crime and arresting suspects.

Order maintenance or peacekeeping—controlling crowds, intervening in domestic disputes.

Service—escorting funeral processions, taking people to the hospital.

Information gathering—determining neighborhood reactions to a proposed liquor license, investigating a missing child.

Municipal Police Departments

continue on next slide

Most police departments in the United States

employ fewer than 50 sworn officers.

Most police officers:

In 2000, 70.9 percent of full-time sworn officers were white men.

In 2000, a high school diploma or higher education was required by 83 percent of the local police departments.

The right or authority of a justice agency to

act in regard to a particular subject matter,

territory, or person.

Public Law Enforcement Agencies in the United States

County Law Enforcement

Jurisdiction

Chapter Five

History and Structure of American Law Enforcement

State Police Model

Highway Patrol Model

State Police Model

The Limited Authority of American Law Enforcement

After completing this chapter, you should

be able to:

A model of state law enforcement services in which

the agency and its officers have the same

law enforcement powers as local police,

but can exercise them anywhere within the state.

The United States has almost 18,000 public

law enforcement agencies. The jurisdiction

of each agency is carefully limited by law.

Law enforcement is also limited by the

procedural law derived from U.S. Supreme

Court decisions.

Community Policing

Highway Patrol Model

Federal Law Enforcement

Describe the major developments that have occurred in policing in America.

Describe the structure of American law enforcement.

Explain the relationship between the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Discuss the development and growth of private security in the United States.

Continued

Briefly describe the jurisdictional limitations of American law enforcement.

Trace the English origins of American law enforcement.

Discuss the early development of American law enforcement.

A model of state law enforcement services in which

officers focus on highway traffic safety, enforcement

of the state’s traffic laws, and the investigation of

accidents on the state’s roads, highways,

and on state property.

A substantial portion of law enforcement work

in the United States is carried out by the

Sheriffs’ departments.

A contemporary approach to policing that

actively involves the community in a working

partnership to control and reduce crime.

Major differences between federal law

enforcement and local and state police are:

Federal agencies operate across the nation.

Federal agencies usually do not have peacekeeping duties.

Some federal agencies have very narrow jurisdictions.

The Constable-Watch System

Prevent terrorist attacks within the United States.

Reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism.

Minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery, from terrorist attacks that do occur within the United States.

Carry out all functions of entities transferred to the department, including by acting as a focal point regarding natural and manmade crises and emergency planning.

The Department of Homeland

Security

continue on next slide

Local Policing and Its Duties

Characteristics of Local Full-Time Police Officers

A system of protection in early England in

which citizens, under the direction of a

constable, or chief peacekeeper, were

required to guard the city and to pursue

criminals.

Constable

In 2000, the nation had 3,070 sheriffs’ departments,

employing 293,823 full-time personnel.

If people know a law enforcement agent at all, it is probably a local police officer, but it is doubtful that even they understand what local police officers in America really do, besides what they see on television and in movies.

The shire reeve was assisted by posses.

In larger areas, ten tithings were grouped

together to form a hundred, and one or

several hundreds constituted a shire. The

shire was under the direction of the shire

reeve.

The Tithing System

The peacekeeper in charge of protection in

early English towns.

Politics and County Law Enforcement

Federal Law Enforcement

Most sheriffs are directly elected and depend

on an elected board of county commissioners

or supervisors for funding.

Organizational Structure

Among the best-known federal law

enforcement agencies are:

FBI

U.S. Secret Service

Treasury Department

Drug Enforcement Agency

continued on next slide

County Law Enforcement Functions

Large departments have many specialized

departments.

Organizational Structure

How a police agency is structured depends

on:

The size of the agency.

The degree of specialization.

The philosophy the leadership has chosen.

The political context of the department.

The history and preferences of a particular community.

Sheriffs generally have a freer hand in

running their agencies than do police chiefs.

Community Policing

As of June 2002, federal agencies employed

nationwide about 93,000 full-time personnel

authorized to make arrests and carry firearms.

Small departments rarely have specialized

departments, or officers trained in

complex investigation.

A desire to actually improve neighborhoods

led to the modern concept of community

policing, which involves:

A problem-oriented approach aimed at handling a broad range of troublesome situations.

Greater emphasis on foot patrols.

Building a relationship with citizens, so they would be more willing to help the police.

County sheriff and department personnel

perform many functions:

Investigating crimes.

Supervising sentenced offenders.

Enforcing criminal and traffic laws.

Serving summons, warrants, and writs.

Providing courtroom security.

Transporting prisoners.

Operating a county jail.

State Law Enforcement

Both state police and highway patrol

agencies perform the following services:

State Law Enforcement

Each state has chosen one of two models for

providing law enforcement services:

State Police Model

Help regulate commercial traffic.

Conduct bomb investigations.

Protect the governor and the capitol grounds and buildings.

Administer computerized information networks for the state, which link up with the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) run by the FBI.

Example: Texas Rangers

Highway Patrol Model

Example: California Highway Patrol

Training Federal Law Enforcement Officers

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) is the largest law enforcement-training establishment in the United states. It provides some or all of the training for a majority of federal law enforcement agencies, as well as for many states, local and international law enforcement agencies.

State Law Enforcement

Characteristics of Sheriffs’ Personnel

Police departments are part of larger

governments. Municipalities generally

operate under one of four forms:

Strong Mayor-Council.

Weak Mayor-Council.

City Manager.

Commission.

State law enforcement agencies provide

criminal and traffic law enforcement, and

other services particular to the needs of that

state government.

Each style of government varies in the

amount of control citizens have over

their leaders, including the chief of police.

In 2000, the 49 primary state law enforcement agencies (Hawaii has no state police agency) had 87,028 employees

The Political Context of Policing