History of American Policing

The History of American Policing America is a country of laws, without laws it would be complete chaos. But with all of the people that live in America you can’t expect everyone to follow the laws, and not everyone does. Ever since the beginning of this great country people have committed criminal acts. Way back when America was still a British colony we didn’t have anyone that was hired to keep everything in order. The first form of American law enforcement was the Night Watch System. How the Night Watch System worked was people would volunteer to watch over their neighborhood and keep the piece all night long. Nobody was in charge of doing this, it was strictly whoever wanted to do it could. Soon American cities grew too large for this system, they had to find another way to patrol the cities. The colonies decided to use the same law enforcement style that their mother country, England, used. The government hired people to enforce laws. Whoever the government chose to hire would be easily recognized as police officers and they would wear uniforms and hats. In 1833, Philadelphia became the first city to employ both day and night watchmen. Five years later Boston formed the first organized police department, consisting of six full time officers. (“Criminal Justice” Gaines/Miller). It’s amazing how far law enforcement has come since then, now instead of six law enforcement officials we have several law enforcement agencies full of thousands of people. We even have state and federal law enforcement officials. Some of the most important state law enforcement officials are the police and the highway patrol. They have evolved drastically since 1833, and are now some of the most important people in their respected states. Some of the most important federal law agencies are the FBI, and the CIA. Even though these are newer than the state law enforcement

Norton 3 officials they still have a long and rich history. Law enforcement is the backbone of this country that