Police History
Police History
L. Lynette Sweney
CJA/214
Jeremy Leach
Police History
Law enforcement and policing within the United States is one of the components that go into the criminal justice system within the United States. Law enforcement along with the criminal and civil courts and the corrections sections such as jails all come together to establish the criminal justice system we follow today. Even though our system is well established today as we know it, this fact wasn’t always so. It took some time to become familiar and aware of the changes that needed to take place. These changes being one taking the race factor out of the factor and implementing the same rights for all. Also another aspect was allowing minorities to become a part of the patrolling force as well as allowing women to become a part of the force. The police are meant to investigate suspected and apparent criminal activity. In addition to this factor they are also there to provide a service to be first responder for public safety.
To begin to better understand how policing operates today you must first understand the history. A better understanding of what happened in the past and allow you to understand how far the criminal justice systems has come and how far we still have to go. Our criminal justice system model dates back to the model of that of the Anglo-Saxon, under the rule of King Alfred the Great. During his time in reign he allotted certain areas to land owners and they were responsible for policing these territories. From that model of the next 800 years up until Sir Robert Peal, the system continuously grew. “The modern concept of police was born in 1829, when Sir Robert Peel brought forth legislation in the British Parliament setting out the terms of a police force which was to operate within the City of London. At the time, London was besieged by criminal elements and the
L. Lynette Sweney
CJA/214
Jeremy Leach
Police History
Law enforcement and policing within the United States is one of the components that go into the criminal justice system within the United States. Law enforcement along with the criminal and civil courts and the corrections sections such as jails all come together to establish the criminal justice system we follow today. Even though our system is well established today as we know it, this fact wasn’t always so. It took some time to become familiar and aware of the changes that needed to take place. These changes being one taking the race factor out of the factor and implementing the same rights for all. Also another aspect was allowing minorities to become a part of the patrolling force as well as allowing women to become a part of the force. The police are meant to investigate suspected and apparent criminal activity. In addition to this factor they are also there to provide a service to be first responder for public safety.
To begin to better understand how policing operates today you must first understand the history. A better understanding of what happened in the past and allow you to understand how far the criminal justice systems has come and how far we still have to go. Our criminal justice system model dates back to the model of that of the Anglo-Saxon, under the rule of King Alfred the Great. During his time in reign he allotted certain areas to land owners and they were responsible for policing these territories. From that model of the next 800 years up until Sir Robert Peal, the system continuously grew. “The modern concept of police was born in 1829, when Sir Robert Peel brought forth legislation in the British Parliament setting out the terms of a police force which was to operate within the City of London. At the time, London was besieged by criminal elements and the