American Policing History

History of Policing in the US: Night Watches and Slave Patrols Response

Jennifer L. Mandato

St. Francis University

Protect and Serve,those are the words that should most commonly appear when speaking of the police force within our country, but since its introduction into our society policing has yet to entirely fulfill those duties.Minorities have been a target of unfair treatment and brutality,as many Slave Patrolling citizens became those who would enforce the law of the land. Instead of policing being a direct response to crime, it originally became a response to urbanization and to ensure an orderly workforce as well as to control those who were deemed to be inferior. The isolation of dangerous classes has been

By increasing police presence in certain low income areas could be hurting individuals rather than helping them. Instead of focusing on “bad” individuals police should be interacting positively within the community that produces these "bad" individuals. If the only time the police interact with individuals is to stop and frisk them or question them, of course they won’t be very fond of the police. A majority of police officers have a different socio-economic background than minorities living within low income and high crime areas. Community policing would cause the police to become more relatable to the public(Dr. Gary Potter, The History of Policing in the United States,Pg 10)Minorities may not feel as discriminated against if police improved relations and talked to them as human beings on their level, rather than criminals or

Gary Potter, The History of Policing in the United States,Pg 4). By controlling the police, politicians were able to maintain votes as well as enforce their policies. By doing this police were not truly helping citizens, they were helping corrupt politicians gain “support”(Dr. Gary Potter, The History of Policing in the United States,Pg 4) . Police would calm workforce riots(which were primarily contrived of minorities, mainly Blacks). (Victor Keppler,P.h.D, A Brief History, of Policing and Slavery in America,Pg 1) by brutally beating and arresting individuals. A minority or low income citizen exercising their free speech was too much for the upper class to handle alone. Ironically enough, this was the majority opinion being suppressed by the upper class minority. Even today police are implemented to solve civil unrest. Instead of getting to the root cause of the problem, law enforcement's primary reaction would tend to be violence or new restrictive policies first rather than actively becoming involved within a troubled community. Today politicians are