Policing Democracy

Early History

The first known set of written laws that influenced policing was the Code of Hammurabi in ancient Babylon in the eighteenth century BCE. The code provided [Page 1201]for punishment, fines, and obligations for offenders. Prior to about 2100 BCE, “policing” is believed to be a function of individual tribes, which used warriors or elders to preserve peace and order. The Code of Hammurabi is considered to be an advance beyond rule by tribal customs as the code does not recognize blood feud between tribes, private retaliation, or marriage by capture. Rather, the code relies on the principle of lex talionis (the law of retaliation) as mandated by the state.

Between 1650 and 1300 BCE, the Israelites migrated from Egypt and later developed the Mosaic Law or the Law of Moses, a covenant between people and God. The influence of Egyptian civilization on the Greeks led to the development of the law of Draco. The Greeks conquered the Aegean territory between 1500 and 1200 BCE, and when the power of Greece declined, the Greeks migrated to their limited homelands and created city-states. With the creation of the city-state or polis, democracy was born. Due to citizen complaints that only the leaders knew the law, Draco was commissioned around 624 BCE to codify the oral law and customs of the land. But it was Solon, another Athenian lawgiver, who modified the law and extended political power to the citizens. In Rome, the laws of the Twelve Tablets represented a fundamental legal system around 450 BCE. Like the Code of Hammurabi, these published laws prescribed rules of conduct and punishments that would result if the Twelve Tablets were violated. A new system was instituted in Rome during the reign of Augustus between 28 BCE and 14 CE. As with other states that used the military as a police force, Rome used its army for internal social control and for defense of the empire and its borders.

Emperor Augustus established the Praetorian Guards and the Urban Cohort. The Praetorian Guards provided his personal security, and the Urban Cohorts kept the peace in Roman city-states. He also developed the Vigiles, or night watchers, around 14 BCE. The Vigiles numbered about 9,000 and acted as Rome's first fire-fighting agency. The Vigiles were also granted police powers such as the power to arrest lawbreakers and apprehend runaway slaves, and they acted against the emperor's opponents. The Vigiles were the first civilian public law enforcement unit largely responsible for public safety and social control. For creating them, Augustus is regarded as the father of policing.

France represents the next major development in policing after the fall of the Roman Empire. Hugh Capet, who ruled France from 987 to 996, is believed to have established the first police force when he created the position of provost of Paris. An artillery company, a horse patrol, a foot patrol, and watchmen supported the provost in carrying out law enforcement responsibilities. In addition, constables and night watch sentries were created as separate forces responsible for policing specific areas of the city. The maintenance of public order became the function of police adjuncts. France established a centralized police force by the seventeenth century, when French kings consolidated their royal authority. It was during this period that Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a finance minister in Louis XIV's administration, created a national police force in France. The king appointed the lieutenant general to represent the state in the city. The lieutenant general also was a magistrate and the chief law enforcement officer in the city. His functions included guaranteeing the security of Paris, regulating and upgrading moral behavior, and regulating social affairs in cases of abandoned children. When Napoleon rose to power in 1799, the centralized police system of France became an essential component of his regime, responsible for gathering intelligence for the king and using criminals to catch other criminals.

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