THE POLICE COMPONENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Police have to be lawyers, scientists, medics, psychologists, athletes, and public servants (Ramsey Clark)

    A basic overview of the police, as agents of law and order, should include a brief synopsis of their history, their structure and function at different levels (federal, state, local), a profile of private security, and an introduction to police responsibilities.  Those are exactly the topics covered here, as subsequent lectures delve into controversies and legal issues.  First, however, it is important to clarify what role police play in society, and why we have them.

WHY POLICE EXIST

    Police, whether public or private, exist to do things that people don't want to do for themselves.  The work is always stressful, exciting, dangerous and boring.  Police are the most visible symbol of authority in any government.  Citizens rely on them to perform a variety of functions, such as catching criminals, preventing crime, keeping the peace, maintaining order, interpreting the law, making people feel good, knowing the answers to miscellaneous questions, and, in general, keeping things on an even keel.  As the opening quote by Ramsey Clark indicates, police officers have to be a "lawyer, scientist, medic, psychologist, athlete, and public servant" and Egon Bittner once described the police function as a response to "something ought not to be happening, and something ought to be done about it right now."

    Undoubtedly, police are a conservative institution because their mission is so closely tied into maintaining the status quo.  It's not that they preserve the status quo at all costs or lack any innovation; it's just that successful accomplishment of their mission is driven toward an idyllic, almost utopian, society of yesteryear -- a communal, crime-free society where people settled minor disputes peacefully between themselves.  It's doubtful if societies like that ever existed, and debatable if the ultimate function of policing is to put itself out of business, but the point is clear -- police are expected to do the impossible and always do it efficiently -- that is, with limited resources and never the possibility of becoming a police state.

    The roles that police play have an intimate connection with the idea of a free and open society.  They must always be shining examples of the judicious use of power.  The police have many powers, from the right to know more information about citizens than the average person needs to know to the right to bully people around without any backtalk when it's necessary.  How wisely, or judiciously, they use these powers is the primary determinant of how free and open a society is.  Whether they know it or not, the police are the guardians of human rights, but they must operate in a political environment where others (politicians and judges) get to determine who's rights and what rights are most important for a stable democracy.

POLICE HISTORY

    History tells us that prior to the Thirteenth century, justice was primarily a matter of private revenge (although there were some notable attempts to establish public police in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome).  All that existed in the English-speaking world from 1066-1285 was the frankpledge system, also called the tithing system, where much like a church member is expected to donate one tenth of their earnings (a tithe) each Sunday, every ten householders living near each other were expected to uphold law and order.  When a man became aware of a crime, he was obligated to raise a hue and cry, and join the tithing in tracking down the criminal.  Over time, this evolved into the parish constable-watch system, a method of appointing one man in each parish of tithings to serve as police officer (constable) for a year.  Constables employed what were called watchmen to work at night.  In rural areas, ten tithings made up what was called the hundred, and one or several hundreds constituted a shire.  Each shire had a shire-reeve (sheriff) appointed or elected, but in 1326, England replaced its shire-reeves with justices of the peace.

    The American colonies adopted English policing wholesale, and even resurrected the office of sheriff.  Most early American police forces consisted of day and night watchmen, and by 1845 (following NYC's lead), most American cities had police chiefs.  Americans also copied as many innovations and reforms as they could from England, the most notable examples being Henry Fielding's Bow Street Runners, the world's first detectives (circa 1748), and Sir Robert Peel's principles of policing for the London Metropolitan police force (circa 1829), also called "bobbies" (after Peel's first name).  Among other things, Peel established the habit of police walking around rather than waiting for a hue and cry.  He made the watchman system obsolete.  America kept its watchmen, however, and American policing fell into a period of political corruption and patronage that lasted until 1930.

    A Presidential Commission, known as the Wickersham Commission (named after its chairman, George Wickersham), released a report in 1931 that was authored primarily by one man - a police chief from Berkeley named August Vollmer.  Along with other police reformers, such as Leonhard Fuld, Raymond Fosdic, Bruce Smith, and O.W. Wilson, Vollmer helped remove the corruption (politics) out of policing, and make it more technological and efficient.  Another important figure was Teddy Roosevelt and his contributions, which include creating state police agencies (as Governor of Pennsylvania) and the FBI (as President).  With the origins of private security, the most important figure was Alan Pinkerton and his famous Pinkerton detectives.

    The years 1969-1982 saw the growth of scientific, professional policing, largely through funding for research and education provided by a federal agency called the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA).  It's hard to overstate the impact of LEAA and other funding sources, like the Ford Foundation, in the research-driven Seventies and Eighties.  Numerous studies were carried out for the first time on what works and doesn't work in policing, such as random patrol (Kansas City Experiment), foot patrol (Flint Michigan and Newark Experiments), one- versus two-officer units (San Diego Experiment), team policing (Cincinnati Experiment), reducing domestic violence (Minneapolis Experiment), reducing fear of crime (Houston Experiment), and problem-oriented policing (Newport News Experiment).  From these experiments, the Nineties and current emphasis upon community policing was born.

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

    There are approximately 18,760 total police agencies in the U.S. with approximately 940,275 employees and a combined annual budget of about $51 billion (year 2000 data).  There are approximately 60 different federal police agencies, and most of them are in the departments of Justice or Treasury.  There are 26 agencies called Highway Patrol and 23 agencies called State Police (Hawaii doesn't have a state police agency per se, but a Department of Public Safety).  Thirty-five states have additional state agencies with limited purpose or special investigative powers. There are 3,088 sheriffs departments in the U.S.  There are about 15,000 municipal police departments in the U.S.  No other nation in the world has ever had as many different types of police departments as the U.S., a fact that means no two police agencies in America are structured alike or function in the same way. 

    The federal agencies are specialized, having specific mandates to enforce certain types of federal laws (there are only about 200 federal crimes).  They are also starting to station their agents overseas, in efforts to deal with the growing problem of transnational crime.  The top five largest agencies (in terms of sworn officers) are the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), BOP (Bureau of Prisons), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), Customs, and the Secret Service.  No federal police agencies have peacekeeping or order maintenance duties typical of local law enforcement.  No federal police agency, not even the FBI, is considered a "national" police force.  The following table contains some selected examples of how federal agencies function:

    The state agencies were created for four reasons: (1) to assist local law enforcement; (2) to investigate cross-county crime; (3) to provide a law enforcement presence in areas that have no local or county presence; (4) to break strikes and control labor movements.  For many years, the state police were the personal tool of governors, but evolved into general all-purpose law enforcement.  Some of the earliest state agencies were the Texas Rangers, which from 1835-1874 was just a mercenary army, and the Pennsylvania Constabulary, formed in 1905 and recognized as the first modern state police force.  By 1925, each state formed either a state police force (centralized all-purpose policing) or a highway patrol department (with separate bureaus of investigation, identification, crime labs, alcohol and drug control, and drivers license examination).  All state agencies administer computer systems that link up with federal computer systems, and most concentrate on criminal violations that occur on state property, including roads and highways. 

    The county agencies are usually run by an elected sheriff, and consist of sworn deputies, civilians, and special deputies (part-timers sworn in for crowd control or special purposes).  They perform a wide variety of functions, including the investigation of crime, traffic enforcement, civil process paper service, courtroom security, and confinement and transport of prisoners.  Some county jails house hundreds and thousands of prisoners.  For example, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department employs over 3,500 employees in its custodial division alone.  The elected nature of the sheriff's office has both advantages and disadvantages.  Sheriffs generally have a freer hand in running their agencies than police chiefs, but partisan politics sometimes intrudes as does political patronage.  Seventeen states have done away with or are doing away with the election of sheriffs.  County agencies often lack jurisdiction over cities and towns, their authority being relegated to unincorporated areas or small towns that have no police forces of their own.

    The municipal agencies, which is a category that would include specialized groups like campus police and transit police, are an example of "local" law enforcement.  The U.S. is a nation of small, local police forces.  Every incorporated municipality in the U.S. has the authority to create its own police force.  Small communities hire only one officer, others about five officers, and the national average size is 10 full-time officers.  Some communities with no police force of their own make contracts with private security or a sheriff's office.  In stark contrast are large agencies like the New York City Police Department with over 40,000 employees.  Municipal agencies are the workhorses of U.S. law enforcement, and have broad authority to apprehend suspects, maintain order, and provide community services.  Duties range from investigating homicides, burglaries, and thefts to intervening in domestic disputes to responding to noise complaints or chasing bats out of a caller's house.  It is sometimes said the acronym PEPPAS best describes the functions of municipal police:
    P -- Protect life and property (via patrol, crime scene control, recovery of stolen goods)
    E -- Enforce the law (via warnings, tickets, complaints, and seizures)
    P -- Prevent crime (by giving advice, directed patrol, or through DARE programs)
    P -- Preserve the peace (visibility, disband disorderly groups, neighborhood intervention)
    A -- Arrest violators (apprehend suspects, conduct raids, stings, and other crackdowns)
    S -- Serve the public (give directions, first aid, and emergency services)

PRIVATE SECURITY

    On average, the private security sector is twice (2x) as large as the public law enforcement sector.  There are four times (4x) as many personnel, and spending is 73% higher than for public law enforcement.  It's also a more efficient sector, on average, producing about twice as much a drop in crime that the public sector is capable of.  The U.S. Department of Labor has long classified private security as one of the fastest growing industries in the country.  The first private agency was started in 1860 as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and today includes over 4,000 separate agencies, the big ones being Pinkerton Burns, Wackenhut, Guardsmark, Wells Fargo, and Allied, and a number of more bodyguard-oriented firms with names such as Advance, Globe, Trojan, American Protective Services and Security Bureau.  The big firms are involved in everything from department store loss prevention to shopping mall, hospital, and nuclear security.  There is a growing proliferation of bodyguard firms.  In addition, there are about 40,000 private detectives and investigators in the U.S., and a growing number of bounty hunter firms. 

    The government sponsors periodical analyses of private security via reports written by Hallcrest Systems called the Hallcrest Reports.  Private policing is tailored policing funded by the guarded organization rather than by public money.  Many wealthy neighborhoods and suburbs in America also have their own private police force.  Private security services are commonly classified as either contract or proprietary.  Contract security is fee-for-service extra protection, such as that provided at sporting events or dignitary protection during a trip.  Proprietary security is the ongoing provision of an in-house security staff which act as the company's own security staff.  The qualifications and salaries of proprietary security personnel are generally higher than those of contract security officers.  

    Although many superbly qualified people work in private security, the vast majority have less training and education than police officers.  In most states, for example, becoming a private security officer requires little more than a week-long training course and a practical firearms proficiency test.  There are other issues too, with police officers "moonlighting" in private security, and concerns over the few constitutional limitations that private security operates under.  The notion of diminished public responsibility adequately sums up many concerns about private security.

POLICE RESPONSIBILITIES

    Police spend a lot of time handling mundane incidents and poring over paperwork.  Actual crime fighting is a rare activity, and there's plenty of unsupervised time which allows for discretionary decision making.  The irony is that the lowest paid employees, with the least amount of authority, do most of the work and make the most important day-to-day decisions.  There is a good deal of debate over how to make police more effective, how to use their discretionary spare time, and what responsibilities should be given priority.  As an organization, police have been unreceptive to many efforts at reform.  For example, many people believe that the military chain of command structure is dysfunctional for police work because it inspires fear, impedes communication, and inhibits good community relations.  Attempts to change the military structure have met with great resistance.  Another area of reform involves experimenting with the source of executive authority in the police chief position, removing political interference from mayors, managers, and city councils.  So far, nothing has been found that works at eliminating the last vestiges of politics from policing.  There is also the issue of educational qualifications.  Most experts would say that the variety of skills expected of police should require a graduate degree, yet the field is characterized by employees with an average high school degree and "some" college.  Better educated, and more women and minority officers would go a long way in accomplishing the police mission.

    Police responsibilities include crime fighting, crime prevention, peacekeeping, and providing service.  These require the police be extremely knowledgeable about criminal nature (if not human nature), be able to detect a threat to society and take reasonable action to prevent that threat from maturing; be able to make trustworthy decisions that "fix" or "handle" complex, peacekeeping situations; and provide numerous types of assistance in areas that are not ordinarily police business.  All these, and the ability to protect oneself and others from danger, are, in a nutshell, the police responsibilities.                    

INTERNET RESOURCES
ASIS (American Society for Industrial Security)
CATO Institute article on Expanding Federal Police Power
CopSeek Directory (leolinks)
Law Enforcement Sites on the Web
New York City's Precincts
Occupational Outlook Handbook on Private Detectives
Officer.com
PIMA's Law Enforcement Online
Police Structure & Organization Mega-Site
State Troopers Directory
U.S. Federal Government Agencies

PRINTED RESOURCES
Bouza, A. (1990). The Police Mystique. NY: Plenum.
Cunningham, W., J. Strauchs & C. Van Meter. (1990). Hallcrest II: Private Security Trends. McLean, VA: Hallcrest Systems.
Klockars, C. (1985). The Idea of Police. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Manning, P. (1977). Police Work. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Reiss, A. (1971). The Police and the Public. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
Shearing, C. & P. Stenning. (1987). Private Policing. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Sparrow, M., M. Moore & D. Kennedy. (1990). Beyond 911. NY: Basic.
Walker, S. (1992). The Police in America. NY: McGraw Hill. [sample chapters]
Wilson, J. (1968). Varieties of Police Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Last Updated: 01/06/04
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