History of Police Management

History of Police Management

Introduction

The police wear many hats; often act as first responders, medical, religious counselor, peace makers, negotiators and diplomats. It is your task is to maintain, but often a thankless, unappreciated, questioned and criticized, not only by the broad public, but by the heads of the agencies themselves. In the police throughout the country, the leadership has hit a wall and in desperate need of repair (Carswell, 2002). This paper gives a brief overview of the leadership style in the law enforcement agencies, especially in the police force.

Discussion

The police wear many hats; often act as first responders, medical, religious counselor, peace makers, negotiators and diplomats. It is your task is to maintain, but often a thankless, unappreciated, questioned and criticized, not only by the broad public, but by the heads of the agencies themselves. In the police throughout the country, the leadership has hit a wall and in desperate need of repair (Carswell, 2002).

History of Police

The first policing procedures adopted by the colonies were patterned after the English parish constable system. In England noblemen appointed constables, that country's first local law enforcement figure, to police rural parishes. The counties traditionally were policed by a sheriff.

From 1608 to 1783 American sheriffs and constables were large landowners appointed by the colonial governors. Many of them had the added duty of being the chief local financial officer, who collected taxes and other fees and kept 10 percent of the proceeds as recompense. This method of policing was sufficient only until the crime problem started to increase. In Boston additional means of policing proved necessary in the 1630s, when the first night watch was formed, consisting initially of a military officer and six soldiers. Later, the night watch was expanded and, probably as an economy measure, was staffed with citizens appointed by the town government. Philadelphia and New Amsterdam armed their night watches with rattles, probably the first effort at crime prevention, rather than crime detection. The ratelwacht, or rattlewatch, as the patrols came to be known, used their rattles not so much to corner felons as to warn of their own presence and thus, hopefully, put any nocturnal marauders to flight (Freedman, 2000).

These methods continued to be used throughout the 18th and into the 19th century, although some localities hired their night watchmen and supplemented them with special "day forces" to assist the constable. Of course, more stringent measures were adopted in areas where the crime problem became more acute. In Virginia's backwoods frontier during the 18th century, the practice of lynching won its name as a result of the activities of Colonel William Lynch, whose band of law enforcers exacted their own punishment, including the ultimate penalty, on a number of evildoers.

Overall, however, through the 17th century criminality was not a major problem in most localities. In New Amsterdam the first recorded police activity was by one Johan Lampo, a provincial Dutch authority who had arrived in 1620. His first known arrest was the collaring of ...