The roots of the early United States in governmental institutions come, ironically, from Great Britain. This included law enforcement. England’s law enforcement dates back to before 1066; the year of the Normandy invasion of Great Britain.
When many of the early Europeans first arrived on our shores, they were shocked by the lack of organized law enforcement. It was more or less, “the strongest were policing themselves and their communities”.
After “things” had settled down fairly well, the job of keeping order in the new colonies was given to justices of the peace, and one might see the “guilty” in pickaxes or stocks, paying off their debt with the society. But, as colonias became towns and towns became cities, the Justice of the Peace system was not enough. The time has come for an organized and salaried police force (there were no female police officers at that time).
In the early 1600s, Boston launched Night Watch, the idea of which worked reasonably well as long as the area remained rural and agrarian. New York City established the Shout and Rattle Watch in 1651, but, in 1705, Philadelphia found it necessary to divide the city into ten patrol areas. This was actually America’s first stab at “organized law enforcement” (for what it was worth).
Sometime between the Civil and Revolutionary Wars, the more than rapid population growth and industrialization in the United States necessitated the development of municipal police departments. In 1833, Philadelphia organized a 24/7 independent police squad. . In 1844, NYC maintained two police forces; one working day unit and one night shift. During this period, police departments were headed by police chiefs, appointed and accountable to political bosses in ways eerily similar to what was seen in black-and-white crime movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Corruption ran rampant .
Part of the law enforcement we inherited from England was “The Sheriff System”. (Remember Robin Hood’s infamous Sheriff of Nottingham?) As the United States moved west, in most border towns, the sheriff was the chief law enforcement officer. He could be recruited from the local community, or more often a Sheriff was selected because of his reputation, and the more depressing the representative, the more likely he was to be chosen. The Sheriff System exists in the United States today, but on a more formal and politicized basis.
Law enforcement agencies and departments of the 21st century are highly specialized organizations, with constant training to prepare them to deal with a wide variety of problems and situations. We have federal, state, county and municipal police officers. We no longer live in the world of our parents. There are dangers we face on a daily basis that you could not have imagined. There is a fine line between real life and the Internet. We continue to depend on the peace officers of all organizations for our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and to carry out the vision of our founding fathers when they wrote that brilliant document, the Constitution of the United States.
