Detective Work

History

In the early nineteenth century, the powerful economic, political, and social forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution brought with them burgeoning problems of social disorder in the dynamic and expanding society in the United States. Until that time, the investigation of crimes was done mainly by constables and private detectives. However, their efforts were generally limited and ineffective, and the era of modern policing organizations began to emerge. The first metropolitan police department in the United States was influenced [Page 504]by the police reforms in England in the 1830s. The force was established in New York City in 1845, and the first detectives were officially assigned to that police department in 1858. By 1880, the local governments of most major American cities had created public police forces and detective units.

The primary function of these new police forces was to reduce the widespread civil disorder and urban unrest generated by growth, industrialization, urbanization, and Western expansion. As part of this order maintenance function, the focus of detectives was essentially offender oriented. Their job was mainly to associate with the criminal underworld, either covertly or overtly, to obtain information about criminals and their activities and also to recover stolen property, generally by negotiation with and payment of money to the thieves. Because police and detectives were organized and funded by city governments, their activities were typically heavily influenced by powerful local politicians, and corruption and abuse of authority were not uncommon. This political era of the police continued into the twentieth century.

In the early twentieth century, the broad-based Progressive reform movement in the United States brought about the reorganization and centralization of the police. The resulting reform period “professionalized” the police by reducing political influence, corruption, and power abuse and by increasing police accountability. The manner in which the reforms were implemented emphasized the police crime control function, and the detective was seen as the primary crime solver. But the centralized case assignment and close supervision reforms of this new police management style fundamentally altered the way detectives did their job. Detectives no longer worked at their own discretion mingling among the underworld community. Instead, they worked in offices and spent their time responding to supervisory and administrative directives to investigate crimes that were reported to the police. In other words, the focus of the detective's tasks evolved from being offender oriented to being case oriented. At the same time, however, the management controls placed on detectives served to restrict their information-collection methods by limiting their contacts with and knowledge of their traditional sources of information in the community.

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