Historical Aspect of Policing. History Assignment.

HISOTRICAL ASPECT OF POLICING
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Policing, nowadays, is a controversial topic in the light of police brutality happening worldwide. After the 1992 Los Angeles riots took the issue to national attention, unnecessary brutality used by the American police has been a grave concern. Police brutality has been making headlines, ever since. Recent deaths at the hands of police officers, such as of George Floyd's, have caused demonstrations and riots nationwide. Activists from Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, and other cities are calling for a reformation of policing through the reduction of police funding (Segarra, 2020).
Policing has been evolving to seek the balance between defending the rights provided by the Constitution of the United States while upholding law and order (Community Policing Consortium, 1994). To further understand the policing reforms, it is vital to learn the historical aspect of policing.
The very first model of policing is community policing. Anglo-Saxon kings, starting with Æthelbert, adopted the Christian-Roman custom of written laws (Newburn 2012). Written here is a prototype of community policing, in which the community is obligated to assist each other in the pursuit of a suspected perpetrator. Under Athelstan, members of the community pursuance and murder of a thief is justified (Maitland and Baildon 1891). These laws were catalyst eventually lead to community members pledging to not be a thief and to never act as an aid to a thief. Policing later becomes centralized and organized through powers of the Crown. In addition, at this point, the law enforcement process advanced into a system with the identification of offenders and networks of interlocking responsibilities on neighborhoods, victims, witnesses, and officers (Sutherland, 1983).
By the thirteenth century, community policing became ineffective, as the feudal system declined. Community policing requires a peaceful, coherent neighborhood. However, at the decline of the feudal system, famines and decline in population destabilized the communities. Such conditions forced the political elite to further support the Crown’s centralization of execution of order and maintenance of peace and order (Newburn, 2012). The power of law enforcement was given to officials. This position was usually given to the chief pledge. The role eventually evolved into a constable. The roles of the constable by the seventh century include the organization of the military, collection of tax, regulation of alehouses, public order maintenance, regulation of environmental pollution, management of vagrants besides their responsibility of arresting, and incarceration of suspects (Treverton et al., 2011).
During the 1820s, riots in London, rise in disorder, and intolerance of public gatherings motivates Robert Peel to introduce the Metropolitan Police Bill. The management of social tensions arising from rapid industrialization and urbanization was given to the police force (Newburn 2012). This lead to the formation of the London Metropolitan Police force. Historians and scholar refers to this as the first modern police department, and regarded Robert Peel as the father of modern pol...