Thread by @michelle_furlow

Good morning, friends! Join me at 7pm, cst, this evening as I introduce a brief history of American Policing.

What event would you argue single-handedly changed policing as we know it today?

What would you add to the list? #CRJ201 #HistoryofPolicing

Hi all! Welcome to Criminal Justice from the home office, today we are going to examine some of the "Then & Now" aspects of American Policing. I hope you follow along...

#CRJ201

Please let me first know a little about you, what is your interest in following along this evening?

#CRJ201 #HistoryofPolicing

THINKING CHALLENGE: Can & do people change?

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THINKING CHALLENGE: Can & do organizations change?

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The day the first American police officer went out on patrol in 1838, he had received
~no training,
~patrolled on foot,
~had no two-way radio,
~could not be dispatched through a 911 system, and
~carried no weapon

#CRJ201 #AmericanPolicing

The police officer in 1950s worked in a very different situation. He probably
~had a high school education;
~was definitely male,
~had only a few African American or Hispanic colleagues, if any

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THINKING CHALLENGE: Based on this quick snapshot, would you argue that policing has changed ...

#CRJ201 #AmericanPolicing

Just the Facts: The History of Policing in America | Crime by the Numbers | A&E



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American policing is a product of its English heritage.

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This heritage included
~the English common law,
~the high value placed on individual rights,
~the court systems and forms of punishments, and
~different law enforcement agencies.

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Robert Peel is the “father” of modern policing.

An important political leader in England, he saw a serious decline in public order and fought for more than 30 years to improve law enforcement

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THINKING CHALLENGE: In your assessment, of Peel's contributions to policing, which has the most lasting impact on modern policing?

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Who created the Metropolitan Police? | Bobbies, Peelers or Blue Devils?



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When the first English colonists in America created their own law enforcement agencies, the three important institutions were the sheriff, the constable, and the watch

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The sheriff was the most important law enforcement official. The sheriff had a broad role that included law enforcement:
~collecting taxes,
~supervising elections,
~maintaining bridges and roads, and
~other miscellaneous duties

sheriffs.org/about-nsa/hist…

@NationalSheriff

In practice, ordinary citizens played a major role in maintaining order through informal social control: a comment, a warning, or a stern rebuke to friends, neighbors, or strangers.

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Did American Slavery help shape modern policing?

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There's some interesting arguments on the discussion ...

via @TheRoot

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The first modern American police forces were established in the United States in the 1830s and 1840s

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As in England, the old system of law enforcement broke down under the impact of urbanization, industrialization, and immigration.

Despite the breakdown in law and order, Americans moved slowly in creating modern police forces.

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Americans borrowed most of the features of modern policing from London:
~mission of crime prevention,
~strategy of visible patrol over fixed beats,
~quasi-military organizational structure.

The structure of political control of the police, however, was very different

Politics influenced every aspect of American policing in the nineteenth century, and the period from the 1830s to 1900 is often called the “political era”

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Police departments in the political era had no personnel standards as one understands them today. Officers were selected entirely on the basis of their political connections

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Routine police patrol in the political era was hopelessly inefficient.

The telephone did not exist, and so it was impossible for citizens to call about crime and disorder.

And with no patrol cars, officers could not have responded quickly, if at all

#CRJ201 #MoraineValley

This was not the “golden age” of American policing in which the police were friendly, knowledgeable about their neighborhoods, and enjoyed good relations with the public.

There were so few police officers that they could not possibly have known many people on their beats.

As crime and violence increased in the late 1800s, however, officers began to carry firearms as standard equipment.

The role of the police was very different in the political era from what it is today. The police were a major social welfare institution.

If Robert Peel was the father of the modern police, August Vollmer was the father of American police professionalism.

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First, the reformers defined policing as a profession.

This meant that the police should be public servants with a professional obligation to serve the entire community on a nonpartisan basis

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THINKING CHALLENGE: What was Vollmer's most significant contribution to modern policing?

cityofberkeley.info/police/history…

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Professionalization progressed slowly but did achieve a number of important gains in terms of the quality of policing

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There was no discussion in any of the reform literature of police use of force, both deadly force and physical force; discrimination against African Americans or Hispanics; or abusive treatment of the unemployed or radical political groups

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THINKING CHALLENGE: Which of the challenges of the Professional Era are still a tremendous issue today?

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Despite these failures, the professionalization movement reformers achieved some important successes. The idea of professionalism was established as the goal for modern policing. Reformed departments also became models for other cities

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Alice Stebbins Wells became the leader of the police women’s movement.

She joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1910, and was soon active at the national level.

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The professional era saw an increase of the influence of female police officers

cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/…

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The Baltimore Police Department celebrates Women's History Month: Women In Policing



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In the years before World War I, two important new law enforcement agencies appeared in the United States: the state police and the Bureau of Investigation

#MoraineValley #CRJ201 #HistoryOfPolicing

strongly encourage ANYONE interested in the formation of the FBI to give listen to @ahtellers

episodes on J. Edgar Hoover, @lindsayagraham is a phenomenal researcher & story-teller

#MoraineValley #CRJ201 #HistoryOfPolicing

What have been some of the best portrayals of J. Edgar Hoover in film?

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The early years of the police professionalization movement coincided with major conflict between the police and African American communities across the country.

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Conflict between the police and the African American community remained a serious problem in all parts of the country, but it did not receive any serious attention until the riots of the 1960s

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How would you define your political leanings?

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Technology revolutionized policing: the introduction of the patrol car, the two-way radio, & the telephone.

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The result was a complete transformation of routine patrol work, the dynamics of police-citizen contacts, public expectations about the police, and the supervision of officers

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THINKING EXERCISE: What technological advance has had the greatest impact on policing today?

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The patrol car first appeared just before World War I and by the 1920s was in widespread use across the country. The police adopted it in part because they had to keep up with citizens and criminals who were now driving cars

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THINKING EXERCISE: The patrol car offered advantages, but had unintended consequences. Which hindered police work most?
~ Isolated officers from community
~ Cars were seen as an "occupying force"
~ Reduced informal communication

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The two-way radio developed slowly as a result of improvements in radio technology, finally becoming widespread in the late 1930s. This technology had two important consequences for routine policing

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First, it allowed departments to dispatch officers in response to citizen calls for service.

Second, it revolutionized police supervision by allowing the department to maintain continuous contact with patrol officers

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The murder of Kitty Genovese is credited as a factor that pushed the emergency 911 system into place, after NYC officials joined in a national effort involving officials in other cities.

iheart.com/podcast/105-st…

#CRJ201 @SYSKPodcast

In 1931, the Wickersham Commission report Lawlessness in Law Enforcement created a national sensation with “the third degree,the inflicting of pain, physical or mental, to extract confessions or statements . . is extensively practiced.”

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The Wickersham Commission had been created by President Herbert Hoover in 1929 to study a wide range of issues in the American criminal justice system, and the report on police lawlessness was one of its 14 reports in 1931

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Remember our earlier discussion of August Vollmer?

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Vollmer’s most famous protégé, emerged as the leader of police reform from the late 1930s through the early 1960s

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Wilson made his greatest impact through his two textbooks on police management: the International City Manager’s Association’s Municipal Police Administration and his own Police Administration (1950).

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Despite the progress in professionalization, the reformers did almost nothing to improve relations with racial and ethnic minority communities

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The 1943 Los Angeles riot brought attention to growing conflict between the police and the Latino community. Often referred to as the Zoot Suit Riots, the violence was the product of many factors



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The most important new figure in American law enforcement in the 1930s was the director of the Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover

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Hoover developed a mastery of public relations, and skillfully manipulated the media to project an image of the FBI agent as the paragon of professionalism: dedicated, honest, well-trained, and relentlessly efficient

The introduction of the UCR, the development of the Ten Most Wanted list, and the creation of the FBI crime lab all served to emphasize the crime-fighting role of the police



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Ernesto Miranda had been arrested six times and imprisoned four times by 18. On the evening of March 2, 1963, he raped a young woman in Phoenix, Arizona.

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In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the Court overturned his conviction and ruled that police officers had to advise suspects of their right to remain silent and their right to an attorney before being interrogated

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The Miranda decision was only one of several famous cases in which the Supreme Court established constitutional standards. The Supreme Court’s decisions related to the police had an enormous impact on searches & seizures & interrogations

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Understanding the Miranda decision:

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As civil rights protests rose, the white police officer in a black neighborhood became a symbol of white power and authority.

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On the night of July 16, 1964, James Powell, an African American, was shot and killed by a white off-duty New York City police officer. The ensuing riot was the first of many over the next four years

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Civil rights groups protested unjustified shootings by police officers, excessive force, inadequate police protection in their neighborhoods, the lack of effective citizen complaint procedures, and racial discrimination in hiring

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President Lyndon Johnson responded by appointing the Kerner Commission to study the riots and make recommendations for reform.

In response to the crisis, police departments established special police–community relations (PCR) units

The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (known as the President’s Crime Commission) (1965–1967) conducted a comprehensive study of the entire criminal justice system, including the police, and sponsored some important police research

Both the Kerner Commission and the President’s Crime Commission found that procedures for handling citizen complaints were completely inadequate

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The President’s Crime Commission & the Kerner Commission expressed concern about the low personnel standards for officers that existed.

Chief William Parker of the LAPD illustrated the commission’s point about how aggressive crime-fighting aggravated police–community relations

In 1973, the @abaesq published its Standards Relating to the Urban Police Function. Most important, the Standards recommended administrative rulemaking involving policy guidelines to control the exercise of police discretion.

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The research revolution produced a substantial body of knowledge about all aspects of policing:
~patrol work,
~the exercise of discretion,
~officer use of force,
~criminal investigation,
~police officer attitudes

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The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment (1972–1973), tested the effect of different levels of patrol on crime. Increased patrol did not reduce crime, reduced patrol did not lead to an increase in crime or public fear of crime

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THINKING CHALLENGE: Does your local department highlight & discuss their history on the web page or social media?

#MoraineValley #CRJ201 #HistoryOfPolicing

Dramatic changes in policing continued to accelerate from the 1970s to the present

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The profile of the American police officer changed significantly beginning in the 1970s

The length of training increased from an average of about 300 hours in the 1960s to more than 1,000 hours in many departments by the 1990s

#MoraineValley #CRJ201 #HistoryOfPolicing

The control of deadly force was one of the most important reforms. The administrative rule-making model for controlling police discretion, which was the basis for the new rules on the use of deadly force, was soon applied to other aspects of policing

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Unions had a dramatic impact on police administration. They won significant improvements in salaries, fringe benefits, and pensions for officers, along with grievance procedures that allowed an officer to challenge unfair treatment

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Citizen oversight of the police spread beginning in the 1980s, and by 2015, it was estimated that there were between 100 and 200 oversight agencies

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The most important new development in policing in the 1980s and 1990s was the advent of community policing (#COP) and problem-oriented policing (#POP). Advocates of community policing hailed it as a new era in policing

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We briefly touched on some of the aspects of modern policing, but we have 14 more weeks to deep dive into Policing as a profession today.

What would you like to hear more about?

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I'm always eager for feedback, how would you grade today's discussion?

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Next, week, I'll be back to take a look at contemporary issues in law enforcement, what time would you be interested in following along?

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Next week, we will take a look at contemporary issues in law enforcement, I welcome all feedback, questions, constructive criticism. The best way to support this thread is RT our poll questions, thanks!

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@UnrollHelper

Thank you for the RT @CPD1617Scanner ... your followers always bring good discussion. Much appreciated.

Thank you for the RT @bpridgeo, it's always a more lively discussion with some engagement. I appreciate it!