History of Police
August 7, 2014
School
Class

The American police systems are largely founded in the English system of policing. Although policing seems ubiquitous today, formal public police services did not appear in the US until the late 1700s and 1800s. Prior to this period, policing efforts consisted of volunteer groups that were charged with a variety of responsibilities including: “social services, including lighting street lamps, running soup kitchens, recovering lost children, capturing runaway animals, and a variety of other services…” (Sagepub, 2014) As the country began to grow and populations increased during the 1700s, these watch groups were expanded to have daytime and nighttime groups. But as the country grew, problems such as riots and social unrest proved to be too much for these groups to handle. Watch groups were also highly ineffective at crime fighting and because they were comprised of volunteers, these groups were often irresponsible and remiss in their duties.
“Policing in England and Colonial America was largely ineffective, as it was based on a volunteer system and their method of patrol was both disorganized and sporadic.5 Night watch groups in Colonial America, as well as day watch groups that were added at a later time, were largely ineffective; instead of controlling crime in their community, some members of the watch groups would sleep and/or socialize while they were on duty.11 (Sagepub, 2014):” During the late 1700’s and early 1800s, formal police departments were beginning to form (Sagepub, 2014). These were the first organized publically funded efforts to control crime. “In 1829, Sir Robert Peel (Home Secretary of England) would introduce the Bill for Improving the Police in and Near the Metropolis (Metropolitan Police Act) to Parliament (Sagepub, 2014)”. This bill would become law and would establish the London