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The roots of early America in government institutions come, ironically, from Britain. This included law enforcement. The application of the law of England dates back to before 1066; the year of the Normandy invasion of Britain.
When many 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 policed themselves and their communities.”
After “things” settled down pretty well, the job of keeping order in the new colonies was given to justices of the peace, and one could see the “culprits” in pickaxes or stocks, paying their debt with the society. But, as colonies 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 the Night Watch, the idea of which worked reasonably well as long as the area remained rural and agrarian. The City of New York established Shout and Rattle Watch in 1651, but, in 1705, Philadelphia found it necessary to divide the city into ten patrol areas. This was really 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 an independent 24/7 police squad. . In 1844, NYC maintained two police forces; a working day unit and a night shift. During this period, police departments were headed by chief constables, appointed and accountable to political bosses in eerily similar fashion to what was seen in black-and-white crime movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Corruption ran rampant. .
Part of law enforcement that we inherited from England was “The Sheriff System”. (Remember Robin Hood’s infamous Nottingham Sheriff?) As America moved west, in most frontier towns, the sheriff was the primary law enforcement officer. He could be recruited from the local community, or more often a Sheriff was selected for 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.
21st century law enforcement agencies and departments are highly specialized organizations, with ongoing training to prepare for a wide variety of issues and situations. We have federal, state, county and municipal police. 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 peace officers from all organizations for our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness and to enforce the vision of our founding fathers when they drafted that brilliant document, the United States Constitution.
