Community Policing

A Brief History of Modern Policing

Community policing is a relatively recent development in the history of modern policing in the United States. At the time of its inception in the 1980s, spirited discussion centered upon whether it represented a real change or merely a rhetorical one. Did it represent a new way of doing law enforcement or was it simply a new term for carrying out the business of policing in the most effective, tried-and-true ways? By the mid- to late 1990s, the concept had gained enough institutional acceptance that the debate shifted again: Was the change that agencies were experiencing revolutionary or evolutionary? Something was happening in policing, but where would it lead? And were recent drops in violent crime directly attributable to developments in community policing?

Scholars generally agree that contemporary policing in the United States and elsewhere has its roots in the early development of English policing. In London in 1829, street crime was rampant and criminals could readily escape their would-be captors by slipping across the jurisdictional boundaries that divided the city. Sir Robert Peel conjured up the idea of an urban police force that might more effectively deal with the deterrence, detection, and apprehension of criminal offenders.

Peel, credited as the founder of modern policing, fashioned his “peelers,” as they initially were called or “bobbies,” as they are known today, after a military style of organizing personnel. Peel also imbued the first police force with some exceptional features that set it apart from the British army. Peel knew the sensitivity of the British populace to the military (especially the public's resistance to the idea of conscription) and its contempt for the ruling class, which seemed all too willing to use exercise military forces to quell disturbances. He reasoned that citizen trust and support for the newly formed police force was essential for popular acceptance.

The police force that Peel created was distinguished by several obvious features. First, rather than adopting the red-coat uniforms worn by British soldiers, Peel dressed his constables in dark blue coats and trousers and gave them distinctive, black woolen hats and shiny badges. Second, to emphasize their role as a public safety resource that appeared more citizenlike than militaristic, Peel's officers were unarmed. Third, he promoted this new police force less as of an arm of central government authority and more as an entity responsive to local control. As such, he even went so far as declare the police force as part of the public itself, essentially paid citizens in uniform doing the necessary job of protecting the English and their property.

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