Police History Essay

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Police History University of Phoenix Dexter Alexander CJA/214 April 8, 2013 Yolonda Johnson Police History During the early life of the American colonies many, if not all of their ideas of policing were influenced by their home country England. During the 1630s the colonies started out with the watch and ward system. The watch and ward system put the responsibilities of policing on the citizens to watch and monitor the community; this was considered a civic duty of every citizen, and was done without pay or any training. Sir Robert Peel served as home sectary in England, an in 1829 Mr. Peel created the metropolitan police. Sir Robert Peel believed that crime prevention could be achieved without infringing on the lives of the public. A key concept that peel believed is the people are the police and the police are the people. Mr. Peel introduced twelve principals of his theory of policing, which are as important now as they were in the 1800s. Sir Robert Peel also changed the way the citizens viewed police by requiring them to wear uniforms, and badges with identification numbers on them to make the police easily to identify. Mr. Peel’s metropolitan police force was nick named the “bobbies” after him. The Bobbies introduced the term “beats” as a form of patrolling the streets. Sir Robert Peel metropolitan police force became the standard of policing that the American colonies soon started to adapt because crime began to grow as the towns got larger. In the metropolitan era of policing the community developed 24 hour coverage by paid officers, and set guild lines to improve community relations and professional behavior. As the country developed, and began to expand many of the town people started moving out west. The absence of government made it very difficult to enforce law and order out west, so many of

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