Lecture 4, Part 1 - Police History (PDF)

SPEAKER 0 Greetings, everyone. Today we're going to begin discussing the police. Today's discussion is going to include, um, an overview of the European experience, the early U.S., uh, experience in policing. And then we're going to cover different eras of policing. So like a lot of the United Stat...

SPEAKER 0 Greetings, everyone. Today we're going to begin discussing the police. Today's discussion is going to include, um, an overview of the European experience, the early U.S., uh, experience in policing. And then we're going to cover different eras of policing. So like a lot of the United States, much of our history is informed by, uh, a European context, specifically England. And policing in the United States is no different. So we're going to begin talking about policing, um, pre-colonial United States back on the European continent to kind of help understand how and why police in the United States formed the way that they did so at the turn of the 19th century, there was a push for a formal police force in London, England. Now, Sir Robert Peel might be the most important person in modern policing. He is often referred to as the father of modern policing by some, and proposed a citywide police force in London in the early 1800s, fearing that police would infringe on the public's rights. The parliament initially rejected his request. So in 1829, after Um peel appealed to Parliament again for a police force, they accepted his proposal, largely due to an increase of crime. But they didn't accept his proposal in full. Um, they did not approve the police to be armed. So this revolutionary police force was nicknamed the bobbies after Sir Robert Peel. And many cite the London Metropolitan Police as the first police force, first modern police force in the world. Peel's mandate had four parts. The first was to prevent crime without using repressive repressive force, and avoid having to call the military to control disturbances. Second part maintain public order by nonviolent means, using force as a last resort. The third part was to reduce conflict between police and the public. And finally, the fourth part is to demonstrate efficiency through the absence of crime and disorder rather than visible police action, so we can look at Peel's four part mandate and we can see some, some pretty important, um, ideas highlighted, right? This idea that police should prevent crime, that police should not use, repressive force should not use force ordinarily. Rather it should be, um, last resort, uh, that there should maintain public order. Right. They should try to reduce, um, conflict between the public and themselves. Right. So people envisioned, uh, a group of individuals with authority, but, uh, a group that got along with, with the public, he also, um, noted that kind of the efficiency of police would be, um, judged by crime rates And and disorder rates. Right? Um, meaning he didn't feel like people had to see police, right? He said, rather than through visible police action as long as crime and disorder was down. He believed that that demonstrated, um, police efficiency. Um, and so the English tradition of policing influenced the US's system of policing in three, um, major ways. First, it limited police authority. So we place a premium on rights, and we limit the authority of government to infringe upon them in the United States. Um, so we allow police to infringe upon infringe upon our, uh, rights, provided they follow proper procedure. Right. We talked about last week, um, criminal justice and the rule of law and how procedural law serves as a roadmap, if you will, for how criminal justice actors are supposed to carry out their job. And so as long as police carry out their job pursuant to proper procedure, we allow them to, um, deprive individuals of of their rights. Uh, second, um, law enforcement in the United States has local autonomy. So we require that law enforcement functions be carried out at the local level for the most part. All right. That's why we'll get to a little bit further in this, and we'll see just how many police agencies function in the United States on any given day. And it's rather staggering. So unlike some countries such as, uh, China, Turkey and India that have national police forces, the United States doesn't have a national police force. Yes, we have federal agencies, but we don't have national police force that has jurisdiction over the entire country and engages in day to day policing operations like these countries here. And then thirdly, um, this system of policing in the United States was influenced by the English experience and that it's resulted in a fragmented organization. Right. The system of policing in the United States has approximately 15 to 16,000 agencies that operate simultaneously. Um, and they're not subjected to much national control or, or regulation. Yes. They have to operate within the confines of procedural law. And yes, if something egregious happens, then there might be some federal oversight through consent decrees apply to agencies. But generally speaking, the day to day um operations are not scrutinized by federal or state regulations. And so these three, um, features in the United States policing, um, are absent in its predecessors European experience. The evolution of policing in the United States was almost identical to the European experience. So during colonial times in America, there were sheriffs, constables and watches. One of the first known night watches was introduced in 1640. This watch, like many others, serve to warn citizens of dangers ranging from fires to crime. Typically, these systems relied on males living in the jurisdiction being told to serve. And they originally operated only at night. But there was something unique to the US experience, um, that was not Originating from the European experience, and that was the use of slave patrols. Um, so, as mentioned in the text, Sam Walker, who is a very famous policing scholar, described slave patrols as distinctly American and the first modern police force in the United States. I want to point something out. I find very interesting here. When I first started teaching Intro to Criminal Justice in 2008, I used this text, at which time it only had two authors, Cole and Smith, in that version of the text. The concept of slave patrols was not even mentioned even in the most current edition. This topic is only given lip service. Write very little real estate and the text is dedicated to this idea, but at least it's in there now and students can start to, to understand, um, how early colonial policing, um, began to evolve. So slave patrols were developed in the South during the 17th century and were used to catch runaway slaves present slave gatherings, search slave quarters and intimidate. Uh, the black population generally. In 1701, South Carolina passed a law that made it illegal for any white person. Pardon me. Made it legal for any white person to apprehend and punish runaway slaves. The act for the better ordering of slaves required all persons to arrest and chastise any slave out of his or her home plantation, without proper pass. Many states had some form of slave patrols. Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and North Carolina, to name a few, suggesting that it was not an isolated practice. This piece of history helps put it into context why some segments of society might think police are targeting them, even if they are not. This earliest form of policing in the United States, coupled with how police have traditionally treated minority groups, helps us begin to understand why police maintain strained relations with some segments of society. We should not ignore that this ugly period of history and historical treatment of minorities. When we think about modern day policing issues, it's important to keep the historical context in mind. So what were the first urban U.S. police departments in the country? And there's some debate about this. And this comes from a different source than the text. But Boston, New York and Philadelphia are considered to be the first three urban police departments. So you can see in 1838, the Boston Police Department was created. It had eight officers at that time who only worked during the day. Boston was not fully uniformed until eight, 1859, when members were required to wear, um, blue jackets and white hats. In addition to police duties, they were charged with maintaining public health until 1853. Many consider the New York Police Department to be the first 24 hour a day, um, seven day a week police department, but they did not wear uniforms for eight years. The New York City Police were also in charge of street sweeping until 1881. But the outbreak of the Civil War, which was in 1861, Chicago, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Newark, and a number of other large cities had their own police departments. So we can see here kind of the the evolution of modern policing. And as you might have gleaned from, um, this graphic here. You know, largely urban areas were implementing police departments. Early on in the United States. We can break policing down into different eras, um, characterized by different features. And so the first era of policing in the United States, uh, we referred to as the political era. And it largely is considered to run from the 1840s to the 1920s. And during this time, uh, police departments were heavily influenced by politics. Um, sometimes entire police departments were replaced when a new mayor was elected. Oftentimes, police were chosen for their job based on political connection and personal ties, rather than the attributes that they had that they could bring to the job. Um, perhaps surprisingly, there were virtually no standards for becoming a police officer during this time. Okay, as we'll see momentarily, police were often untrained and involved in corruption. During prohibition, it was not uncommon for police to protect bootleggers because it was, um, so financially rewarding to, um, to both the bootleggers and and the police. So this was obviously a period of time in policing that, um, it's very dark and it doesn't resemble remotely what we see in a 21st century, um, policing an environment. SPEAKER 1 Is these national problems the police department faced? The police Turner dilemma of political dilemma of political interference. Only months after the stop, months after the 29 of 1999, George Porter was elected immediately acting, immediately demoted mayor, demoted James Davis. Three years chiefs passed and replaced him with his hand and replaced him with his handpicked esthetic, Roy E Steckel. These changes occurred despite city despite City Charter section 202 to have eliminated political interference, political interference and the LAPD. The new law Empower Law, the Police Commission to a police commission to appoint the chief was the problem was appointed the mayor. The police commission to ensure continued to ensure continued control of the police department routinely had the commissioners write, and had the Commission write an dated letter of resignation upon their appointment was a political creed. It was a political creed. The mayor, Ross then were out and you were out. SPEAKER 2 Over the years, the over the years being changed conditions, dramatic change. In the 1920s and 1930s, basically police commission and the police commission and the private security force, the private security political power was in political power at the time. SPEAKER 0 So we can see that the police were controlled by the mayor in Los Angeles during this time. And this was not uncommon among other police departments as well. In addition, during this period, police were not the well-trained and oiled machines like they are today. This is partially a result of the political corruption that ran rampant during this time, and it was not uncommon for an entire police department to be fired and replaced immediately after an election. This next clip speaks to the requirements needed for becoming a police officer during this time. How does it go? SPEAKER 3 It required you to have Need to have at least an eighth grade education. And at that time and at that time, he had more. Too many had more than eighth grade. At that time. Why, at that time he went down and filled out your application. And what they did, you went through to give you a little talk placement. The next day they gave day and they gave you a badge and a key to the game, key to the game, the bus and the but really young John, John John Young, son of US 92nd road, got on there and went down their city hall and in the city Hall and in the front door, and we run into all that. As we went in the building, they saw the whole group and saw the whole mass and, and got back on it, got back and went to the streetcar, 77th Street, 77th Street. That was the beginning. And that was the first 1925 1925. SPEAKER 0 So this clip suggests the requirements for becoming a police officer during this time were quite low. All one needed was really a high school education. Um, it also illuminated that the hiring process was nearly instantaneous. Based on the comments from the interviewees. There was no psychological evaluation, no physical evaluation, etc.. Uh, very different from today's requirements. This era of policing was also plagued by corruption, as is demonstrated in this next clip. SPEAKER 1 Rye. Utopian. Rye. Became a spawning ground ground for bootleggers, racketeers, and all eager to sell to all eager to sell to a thirsty part of this mayhem evolved. Corrupt mayhem involved corrupt politicians, judges and police departments not just across but across the nation. Although there was a brief flicker, although there was a brief flicker of speed during the late 20s, during the decade of the 20s, it would not be. SPEAKER 2 The onset of prohibition. The onset of prohibition that just finished it. I just finished it off. Payment that the payoffs were high. The payoffs were so high. Low risk was everybody's doing it. Everybody was making criminals out of everybody. And and no one see, no one seems to care. There were a succession or a succession of mayors who were clearly, clearly mixed up, making that leave of doing and illegal doing, chiefs of police, that chiefs of police, the men that the chiefs of police, the men that the chiefs of police appointed to run the violence made it very clear, made it very clear, almost Wild West conditions, almost Wild West conditions would come back. SPEAKER 1 Along with gambling, an illegal act, an illegal, a serious problem, a serious problem of corruption in city government. A cancer like originated in the mayors originated in the mayor's office throughout the Los Angeles. Without the Los Angeles police, you had an N. If you had an receive an LA, you could receive an LAPD degree of immunity and the degree of immunity it provides. 1939 by 1939, 8000 8000 LAPD, LAPD badges all over town. Because prior to our class, prior to all the political. SPEAKER 3 All this. SPEAKER 1 Political. SPEAKER 3 Upset was upset was. SPEAKER 1 And all. SPEAKER 3 Politics and politics. Bribery, bribery. There were more. SPEAKER 1 Detective. There were. SPEAKER 3 More badges out, and. SPEAKER 1 There were. SPEAKER 3 Policemen. SPEAKER 1 Our entire Los Angeles. SPEAKER 3 Tired Los Angeles. Honorary badges were honorary badges were given. And if you stopped somebody and if you stopped somebody or anything, they'd. SPEAKER 1 Flash as. SPEAKER 3 Honorary flashes identical to an authenticate. SPEAKER 1 To. And in the. SPEAKER 4 1930s, in the 1930s, some of the darkest days, some of the city of Los Angeles and the city of Los Angeles. And the police we have, uh, we have we have continue. We have to continue to clean the city up, get control of vice and control vice and prostitution and gambling on in the city that are going on in the city with with little success. SPEAKER 0 So it was this image of police and policing that led to the progressive or professional movement in law enforcement. The professional era of policing ran roughly from the 1920s to the 1970s, and during this time the following changes were sought. Um, to remove police from politics. Right to kind of disrupt that that relationship so that police were no longer, um, serving as the the henchmen for the political elites. Um, there was also an attempt to train um members of the police force. Right. They wanted, um, officers not only to be trained, but well disciplined and tightly organized. There was also an attempt, um, to, uh, ensure laws were equally enforced across different segments of society. Um, progressive reformers during this era also sought to use half police, use new technology, uh, in their um, distribution of services. They believe that personnel procedures should be based on merit rather than, um, ones political or personal connections. And they believe that the main task of police should be fighting crime. So some of these, um, kind of visions during this, this era are similar to Peel's vision. So during the 20th century, police underwent significant changes, uh, due to an organized movement to professionalize police. Um, there was also a social movement, uh, percolating that was was calling for the equal treatment of all citizens. And then we also see technological advancements that began to be applied to policing. And all of these factors played a role in how police organizations and individuals carried out their jobs. In terms of professionalizing police, many agencies instituted recruiting standards, training curriculum, and police governing pardon me policies governing police practices. Right. And in the 21st century, you know, thinking of these things, being absent is is almost, um, you know, an oxymoron. But we have to, to, to remember we're talking about very early on in the policing evolution prior to advances like these, policing as an institution was a very hodgepodge operation. They were often viewed again as political hacks with very little education and no boundaries. Moreover, it was not uncommon for police to be drunk on the job prior to these initiatives. August Vollmer, who is considered the father of American police professionalism, is someone that you should definitely be familiar with. He was the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department in 1923, and his policies fundamentally changed how policing was carried out, not just in Los Angeles, but, uh, across the country. SPEAKER 1 When city officials convinced, city officials convinced both from Berkeley, California, from Berkeley, California, had the LAPD. SPEAKER 2 He was very highly respected, very highly respected North American, but not only 20, but, well, he wrote 20 books. Voracious reader, voracious reader. A very, very man. Bright man without much formal education, without much formal education. But his belief was in. But his belief was in job that required the job required the very best that society had. They had to be highly educated, they had to be highly educated and in particular kinds of things like deviant psychology, a lot of other scientific things, a lot of other scientific things, because progressive personal progress and personal progress and believe the kind of things you believed in the lie detector. SPEAKER 1 When Vollmer took command, when a command done with a primary stick and gun police, primary instruments of police was a big shock to many when he developed and he developed a new and far different approach, something almost unheard of in early 20th century. In early 20th century starts. SPEAKER 4 A police training school starts a police training school. That is the format of the Academy, the forerunner of our academy. Instead of where instead of the police officers coming to work, being given a badge here at this time here until you know the job, until you know the job chief we believe was chief home school belief was we ought to have a school send these and send these, which is a major step, which is a major step in the police department professionalizing the police department. SPEAKER 1 For those officers already on the department, those officers already developed an intelligence. Vollmer developed an intelligence methodology, was to reorder methodology was to reorder those that scored high around those that scored high. SPEAKER 2 And he tested all the on and he tested all the officers. And they took a big test and taken by 12 taken by something like 12 million males at the time, American males at the time of the First World War. Highly respected, highly respected among Psychologist and he tested against the LAPD. The most you could get was 212,212. And they had somebody who got over 200, but they had that. They had been getting six captains. SPEAKER 1 And the embarrassment of the department, the embarrassment of the department, training and education became even more education became even more evident after ancestry were printed on the front page of and printed on the front page of a newspaper. Question what is sabotage? Question what is Sabbath in. SPEAKER 5 The laws of the Sabbath? Breaking the laws of the Sabbath. SPEAKER 1 What is arson? SPEAKER 5 What is mistreating women? Mistreating women? Question. SPEAKER 1 What did you do in case of a race? What did you do in case of a race? SPEAKER 5 I get the numbers of both cars. I get the numbers of both cars. SPEAKER 1 Question to what extent an officer uses. What extent may an officer use force in effecting an arrest? SPEAKER 5 Use common sense and if not common sense. Summon help. Not capable. Summon help. Question. SPEAKER 1 What are race questions? What are Rabies. SPEAKER 5 Rabies are Jewish priests, rabies, Jewish priests. And I would do nothing for them. SPEAKER 1 Victory at age one. Victory was one of these lost works with one of these low scorers. SPEAKER 6 They said that a guy they said was never Figaro Street on Figaro Street. Spell the name. And they couldn't drag him over on the street. They could spell and he could spell, and that's all there was to it. That's all there was to it. His ways to do things, his ways to do these things. He was a smart person. He was a smart person. SPEAKER 0 So, as this quote suggests, Vollmer was responsible for implementing training protocols to teach officers how to correctly carry out their job duties. He also introduced intelligence testing to ensure that officers hired met a minimum requirement. Right. It's not a good idea to have, um, people who lack The required level of intelligence out there enforcing laws against other people. Moreover, Vollmer was responsible for making police more scientific. He implemented crime labs and relied on science to solve crimes. In addition to the many programs and policies that were put in place in the early 1900s, technology began to also play and continues to play a huge role in the evolution of policing today. So during the first half of the 1900s, several technological advancements changed how police conducted their jobs. We can look at the automobile. Two way radios and the telephone. Cars were introduced in the United States around the turn of the century. And this fundamentally changed how police conducted their job. They were no longer resigned to foot patrol. Prior to cars, police had to walk around the city while on patrol or on horseback. This meant that police could cover larger areas and respond more quickly to incidents that were brought to their attention. And we can look here. This is a circa 1910, uh, police car from DPD compared to circa 2015. So we can see over time how things have changed. The evolution of even the technology in policing has changed. Um, when cars were introduced to policing, they also changed how police interacted with citizens. When on foot patrol, they were more likely to interact with people on a personal level, right? They're walking by houses, storefronts down the street. They see people interacting with them. Cars isolated them from the public and obstructed their ability to formulate personal relationships with citizens. Another piece of technology that fundamentally changed how police perform their job was the two way radio. Right prior to the radio, officers had to walk back to the police precinct to report a problem until call boxes were, uh, implemented. Once call boxes were invented, they had to find a call box to report a problem with the two way radio. Police could patrol wherever they wanted and still be able to contact dispatch while in the field. This was obviously a major improvement in terms of officer safety and response times. Not only could officers communicate with dispatch, but headquarters could also communicate with other officers and tell them where they were needed. The two way radio also meant that supervisors could check on officers and increase the level of supervision. And again, we can see kind of the evolution of the two way radio from the car, even the backpack, to now wearing one on the lapel. And I imagine, you know, this is a circa 2000, um, image. I imagine they're even smaller now. The final technological advancement that we're going to discuss that changed policing forever is the telephone. So despite the fact that it was developed in the 1800s, it was not widely owned until the 20th century. This allowed citizens to easily contact the police. They no longer had to wait until they saw an officer or walk to the station to report an issue. There is still a continued movement for more professionalized and better trained police today. Okay, also, technology continues to shape how policing conduct our job. So again, we can look here at the telephone, um, and the early days of its implementation compared to this is a circa 2015 where now we not only have telephones, but we have computers and cameras and everything, you know, that is monitoring and increasing police ability to, um, acknowledge or be notified when a crime occurs. There's some new technology that plays a role in policing that didn't exist in the early days, such as tasers, in-car video cameras and body cameras, to name a few. All of these pieces of technology shape, uh, how police carry out their role, help with investigations, etc.. While this area pardon me era of policing produced some advancements in professionalism, it also was characterized as a very tumultuous time in policing. Racial tensions continue to be a problem across America during this time. Much like the 1800s, the early 1900s saw race riots erupt in cities across the nation in 1919. In Chicago 1943, there was New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles. These rights were largely borne out of the ill treatment of minorities by whites in general, but police specifically One of the Wickersham Commission's reports in 1931, entitled Lawlessness and Law Enforcement, concluded that the third degree, or the inflicting of pain, physical or mental, to extract confessions or statements is extensively practiced. Moreover, the 1960s witnessed the civil rights and antiwar movements, more urban riots, and rising crime rates, all of which cast doubt on the effectiveness of the professionalization movement in policing. So, despite the professionalization movement, certain practices remained ill. Treatment of those suspected of criminal activity, especially minorities, and this ill treatment of citizens by police led to the next era of policing, which is the community policing era. And we are still currently in this era of policing, and it is considered to run roughly 1970s to present day And this agenda was partially brought about as a result of research findings that conclusively demonstrated police by themselves could not fight crime. Moreover, research demonstrated that increasing the number of police officers on patrol did not have much of an impact on crime. Research also demonstrated that rapid response to calls for service did not have much of an impact on arrest rates. Um. Which makes sense because unless the crime is, uh, in commission when the call was made, the police oftentimes get to the scene long after the perpetrator has fled. So it was becoming very clear that police needed communities to cooperate if they were to be successful. In addition, some scholars claimed that the police deal with and solve problems more than they fight crime. So we should view them as problem solvers, not necessarily crime fighters and communities are faced with a lot of different problems, some of which are crime. But not all problems are criminal in nature. The police may help with dispersing a group of juveniles that consistently hang out on the corner. They might be helped. They might be asked to help get graffiti removed from signs, fences or homes. They might be asked to address the issues of squatters using vacant houses. They might be asked to help residents get a car towed away that had been sitting unoccupied for quite some time. So there are a whole host of problems communities deal with, and many of them are crime related, but not in the sense of how we usually define crime, such as robbery, assault, homicide, etc. nonetheless, they need the help of police to be addressed, so this approach attempts to strengthen the ties between the police and the communities they serve.