It is well known that there were always people who conducted crimes but not always there was a police to stop them. The word itself (Police) means officers who are in charge of peace or are employed for this purpose. Britain’s police history varies more than other countries and even nowadays their appearance does not look anything alike to other police forces in the world. Everything started around 2000 years ago when Saxons brought their own form of police into Britain and let’s see how it diverse over the years.
As it was mentioned before police was not always around the first evidence of the police was brought to British law enforcement at 1361 but let’s take a look way more back when “people were the police”. As the crimes was there people needed to take actions for standing their own ground. Then they decided that one person at that time called “tything” will be in charge for one hundred people of their village/city and there was one man in charge of all the “tythings” so called “Sherif”. Over the years this system changed a lot and from it diverse another similar system. Instead of few people looking out for the village later on they decided to hold an election for selecting one person who is going to serve for one year without any salary. That person’s duty was to keep his district/region from crimes and he had to work with local justices. After some time there was add so called “The watch” group which consisted out of people who were paid for guarding the gates, streets etc. But at the end of 18th century these both systems failed and were no longer used. In addition to that everything stimulated the formulation of the “New Police”.
At the times of industrial revolution there was a big chaos going on in the streets of Lo...
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...n the detectives came in. It was really hard to make sure that policeman behave by the rules there was a lot of officers arrested for misbehaving while they were on duty.
During 1900 the police force grew by 16,000 officers, they started obeying the rules and fighting crimes more sufficient and therefore number of crimes dropped dramatically. The name of the police was changed to “Metropolitan police service”. The uniforms were left almost the same they still could not have a gun but they have to wear duty belt which contains radio, handcuffs, gloves and pepper spray.
To sum up, we can see that police forces went thru a long history to be established as it is right now and most probably it will change even more in the future. Metropolitan police service still exist until today just one major difference is that now there is not just policeman but also a policewoman.
The English Police experience influenced American policing through their practice of keeping city streets clean as well as establishing the good order and discipline of its residents. One the main ways they were able to accomplish this was through deterrence which is still used to this day. The mere presence of a police officer or officers would deter residents from getting out of line and prevent them from doing "unseemly behavior" in public places. The establishment of the police meant an active group patrolling the streets on the lookout for breaches of the moral code as well as common-law crimes, thus extending the authority of the state into the daily lives of the
This essay will introduce two competing perspectives of policing, they are the orthodox and revisionist perspectives. This essay will then relate the orthodox and revisionist perspectives to the themes of lack of structure, industrialisation and finally hostility. The essay will then discuss whether the creation of the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 was an effective
The system of crime and law enforcement had hardly changed in Britain since the medieval times. Justices of the Peace or JPs were appointed by the Crown since 1361. Before the night watchmen and parish constables were introduced a primitive police force was introduced and the JPs were assisted by constables who only worked part time and were very unreliable as the pay was really bad. The early stages of the force consisted of a night watchmen and parish constables, who were prior to the creation of the main police force. Watchmen were groups of men, usually authorised by a state, government, or society, to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement. Constables were required to apprehend anyone accused of a felony and bring criminals to a justice of the peace. They also had a general responsibility to keep the peace. There was no expectation that they would investigate and prosecute crimes because of limited responsibility and training. Night watchmen patrolled the streets between 9 or 10pm until sunrise and were expected to examine all suspicious characters. In the City of London, the City Marshall and the Beadles (Parish wardens) conducted daytime patrols. Similar to the night watchmen, primary responsibilities were to patrol and deter, drunkenness, beggars, vagrants and prostitutes and to act as a deterrent against more serious offences. Over the course of this period, the arrangements by which men served as constables and watchmen changed significantly, to incorporate how felons were detected and apprehended.
“For many early Victorians, policing was a new and low-status occupation. Few men became policeman for positive reasons" (Taylor 49).
The police was set up originally in 1829 by Robert Peel, who was home secretary at the time. It was created because as society became more complex, they needed a way to deal with civil disorder without using the military (Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime 2014). To date, there are 43 police forces in England and Wales. The police are used “to prevent crime, protect life and
Sir Robert Peel was born in 1788 and died in 1850. He was known as the founder of modern policing. He was born in Bury Lancashine. Peel was a social reformist and served as a prime minister twice and was a home secretary. When Peel was a prime minister he passed modern legislation which addressed working class problems. He also was the creator of the act of 1842 which was the prohibiting of women and children from working in underground mines. Peel also did the factory act of 1844 which set fourth how many hours women and children could work in a factory. When Peel was doing a home secretary he introduced a bunch of reforms to the British criminal laws. One was the penal code system which made fewer crimes that carried the death penalty and
Although, it has also been criticized for been incompatible with the community, inflexible and undermining some goals of policing, it is still acknowledged as an important organizational development in policing during the latter half of the 20th century (BJA, police executive research
It is a myth to believe that an officers job is spend fighting dangerous crimes, in reality officers spend more time handing smaller cases. For example, police officers spend a lot of time doing daily tasks such as giving speeding tickets and being mediators in disputes (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Handing out speeding tickers and handling minor disputes are far from fighting crime. Police officers spend more time doing preventive measures (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Preventive measures involve officers intervening to prevent further altercations. Victor Kappeler and Gary Potter discussed the myth of crime fighting as invalid and misleading notions of an officer’s employment.
Even with the increased training and accountability that came with the Peelian model of policing, the next sixty years of policing were dominated by politics. Policing was one large part of the political patronage system, a system where political candidates would reward those citizens who provided support during the election (Roberg et al. 2012). After elections, public officials rewarded individuals by providing them with police jobs. As a result of political pressure, the police were now used as a tool in the political machine’s fight to maintain control (Roberg et al. 2012). The character of police departments would frequently change after every new election.
Since the time of the Caves humans would gather into groups living and hunting together instead of living individually. They had realized that things were easier to do in groups than individually. So as the time went by, the number of the people in groups grew more and more and the groups where turning into villages and later on big cities creating a complete society. Thus, as the society tended to grow more and more people had to make sure that everyone was following the rules and laws that were created within the society. The concept of creating a group of people who would be responsible for such mission is the present police.
The Political Era of policing occurred in the early 1800’s and lasted until the 1930’s, and was under the direct influence of the local government and politicians. There were benefits of political influence; police departments began to develop intimate relationships within their communities offering a wide array of services to citizens. For example, the police worked soup kitchens and provided temporary housing for immigrants searching for work (Peak, 2015). In addition to providing an array of services to the community, officers were integrated into neighborhoods, which helped to prevent and contain riots. Typically, officers were assigned to neighborhoods where they lived or had the same ethnic background. Police departments
The first police department in America developed in New York and began the first era of policing which spanned from the 1830s to 1900 and is known as the political era (Walker & Katz, 2012). As emphasized by Walker (1999) not only did the political era of policing revolve around politics but provided officers with little to no training, education or recruitment standards (as cited in Police: History, 2014). The era also forced shaky job security for law enforcement and officers could be fired and hired at any point with little to no reason. Even men with criminal records were foot patrolling and women were only seen as “matrons” for the jail; they did not carry weapons and often times had very little arrest discretion (Walker & Katz, 2012). According to Walker and Katz (2012), “a $300 payment to the Tammany Hall poli...
...T., Reiner, R. (2012) ‘Policing the Police’ in The Official Handbook of Criminology. Ed. By Maguire, M., Morgan, R., Reiner, R. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 806- 838
Since English colonizers were the first to establish an extravagant, European society in North America, it is unsurprising that many of the aspects of the American administration of justice stemmed from its mother country. In England, law enforcement was an unorganized mess until the year 1200 (Schmalleger 137). The police system remained static from 1285 to 1829, until when Sir Robert Peel instituted the modern police force (Schmalleger 139). However, early American law enforcement was bound to be different, due to the differences of American and English life and environment. In the beginning of the colonial law enforcement, towns and cities inaugurated versions of the English day ward and night watch, but these processes did not remain in place for long (Schmalleger 139).
American law enforcement agencies are based off the English models which began in the early 1800’s. In 1829, the English Parliament passed the Metropolitan Police Act (Walker, 1983). Sir Robert Peel who has been credited as the father of modern policing introduced this act to Parliament (Walker, 1983). This act established the London Metropolitan Police which was the model for American policing. This method of policing incorpor...