Municipal Policing

The concept of municipal policing is the backbone of public safety and order maintenance in Western democracies. Local control of government services is a core value in free societies. Conversely, in nondemocratic countries, policing generally falls to the military. Military systems support the prevailing order of the day, whereas municipal policing upholds laws, justice, and the social values of communities. Municipalities are primarily urban political units having corporate status and, usually, [Page 295]powers of self-government. Police forces are made up of trained officers entrusted by a government with maintenance of public peace and order, enforcement of laws, and prevention and detection of crime. Contemporary municipal police departments operating in democratic societies are, for the most part, publicly financed, publicly accountable, paramilitary in structure and appearance, bureaucratic, and on duty 24 hours a day. Most police agencies are organized functionally into line (patrol and investigative operations), staff, and support functions. Departments are led by a police chief or police commissioner with subordinate positions designated by military-style rank, such as major, captain, lieutenant, sergeant, and corporal.

Municipal policing in the United States dates from colonial times. In 1636, the city of Boston established a Night Watch. All males over the age of 18 were required to serve when called upon. In 1651, New York City took a similar approach with its Shout and Rattle Watch. The rattle was an actual rattle, used to sound the alarm by a rattle watcher. By the turn of the 18th century, large cities like Philadelphia found it necessary to divide the city into 10 nighttime patrol areas in order to maintain order. Each patrol area was manned by a constable, who recruited citizen volunteers to keep watch with him.

Early in the 19th century, the developing British system of policing became a major influence on the fledgling American policing system. In 1829, British Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel launched a public civil police force in England with the introduction of the Metropolitan Police Act. The act established a Police Office, administered by commissioners in charge of planning and creating the Metropolitan Police District, staffed by paid constables. Peel believed that “the police are the people and the people are the police.” His model of a police department providing police service integrated into the daily life of communities spread to the United States. By 1833, Philadelphia had organized an independent, 24-hour-a-day police force. By 1844, New York City had two police forces, daytime duty and the night watch. During this period, known as the Spoils Period, police departments were headed by police chiefs who were appointed and accountable to political bosses. Officers were hired to pay off political debts, and corruption was commonplace.

In the almost 100 years between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the rapid growth of population and industrialization in America mandated the further development of municipal police departments. Municipal policing evolved from the Spoils Period into the Political Era (1833–1928). This era saw control of the police by political bosses who wanted to maintain the political status quo, control crime and disorder, and give broad social services to those in political favor. The Traditional Era (1929–1970s) was marked by the advent of hierarchical, bureaucratic, centralized command. This traditional or professional era saw the development of municipal police responding to calls channeled through a central dispatch. The 9-1-1 system was implemented and the practice of patrolling beats in cars expanded. The 1980s ushered in the current Community Policing era. This policing philosophy emerged out of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and in response to a rising tide of crime in the 1970s and 1980s. Connected to the issue of civil rights was the ongoing mistrust between a significant number of minority citizens and their local police. The widespread perception that the police are routinely guilty of bias in how they treat racial minorities and a concurrent rise in drug crimes and related violence presented municipal police forces with challenges to the delivery of police services. Community and police leadership responded by bringing together the elements of community partnerships, collaborative problem solving, and police organizational change to improve the quality of municipal police service. The result has been an emphasis on a more proactive police response to crime, a focus on reducing racially biased policing, and an increase in the number of racial minorities and women in police service. During this period, and as part of this movement, problem-oriented policing was also developed whereby police would focus on specific problems and develop, sometimes in concert with the community and other service providers, a plan for mitigating or eliminating the problem.

...