Police Intelligence: Rapidly Changing the Way Police Organizations Fight Crime
Since the professional era of policing, the traditional role of the police officer in the United States has primarily been that of crime fighter. Law enforcement officers detect and arrest offenders to keep the public safe and until relatively recently, the job was pretty straightforward. The officer would walk his beat, talking to the community and acting to reassure them. If a crime occurred, the officer would react by attempting to catch the offenders after the crime had occurred. An officer's discretion dictated whether an arrest would be made or not. In the first half of the twentieth century the effectiveness and conduct of police were highly variable, and not only from city to city, but within the various precincts, neighbourhoods and beats that made up a particular city. American law enforcement agencies of this time period could be characterized as decentralized, muddled, and self-ruled (Johnson, 1981). This paper discussed the fighting crimes and role of police in context of modern crimes and how police fight crimes. The author discussed the history of policing and how new models Model emerged and how is it working.i.e. 'COMPSTAT' and Intelligence-led Policing and recently the Data-driven approach to crime and traffic safety
Police Intelligence: Rapidly changing the way police organizations fight crime
History of Modern Policing & Professional Crime-Fighting Model
Early History
Early law enforcement history and evolution in America was based on concepts taken from the first modern police agency in London in 1829 and imitated by the first American police agencies established in Boston and New York in the 1840's (Steverson,2008). English Prime Minister Robert Peel created the London Metropolitan Police while acting as the British home secretary in 1829. Peel's reforms as home secretary and later prime minister created a police force that used preventative policing in its earliest form (Johnson, 1981). The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 created new rules by which police would act and would later become known as the Peelian Principles (Germann, Day, & Gallati, 1976; Ramsay, A.A.W, 1969). The Peelian Principles included the ideas that police effectiveness will be measured by lower crime rates, information about criminal activity should be shared with the public, police will be adequately dispersed both geographically and temporally, and that good record keeping is important for the7deployment of police and resources where they are the most needed (Germann, et al., 1976; Ramsay, A.A.W, 1969).
These innovations would be adopted in America, but they quickly were tailored to American cultural and social conditions and soon became nearly unrecognizable from their English originators. In the urban areas of the American Northeast, neighbourhoods grew around ethnic enclaves and reflected the socioeconomic status and ethnicity of these inhabitants (Steverson, 2008). Crime and fear were rampant in these neighbourhoods and American police responded by adopting a uniformed presence to deter criminals, arming themselves against an armed populace, and using force against force (Johnson, 1981).This was in direct contrast to English police who were unarmed and used great restraint in using physical force. American police learned to use the law to serve their own interests and used great personal discretion in their decision making, often with great moral ambiguity. This lead to conditions of distrust and hatred among the populace and bred a fear of police that existed well into the next century.
After the advent of radio dispatch and fully motorized departments in the 1930's, modern policing was born and the era of police professionalism and the professional crime fighting model took hold. Based on principals espoused by the reformers August Vollmer and Orlando W. Wilson, the fundamental attributes of this new method of policing called for police to be college educated, free from political control, and paramilitary in nature (Johnson, 1981). This period also saw the creation of centralized command structures and the use of modern technology and methods. This crime fighting model called for officers to cruise their beats in random patterns looking for wrongdoers, allowing for speedy response to calls for service, and promoted reactive criminal investigation without any discretionary decision making by the officers.
But the professional crime-fighting model had its drawbacks. The tactic of unsystematic motorized patrols, quick response times to calls, and the emergence of 911as an on-demand deployment strategy produced an incident-driven style of policing that resulted in agencies whose main purpose was to respond to calls for service. The duty of the public in this model was reduced...
According to Hammond, "Studies show there is a 40% chance that burglaries and other nonviolent crimes are being committed by someone who already has committed a violent crime, perhaps even murder" (p. 12). Other useful applications that have been identified for DNA analyses include resolving missing or unidentified people cases and the U.S. Department of Justice continues to collaborate with state and local law enforcement agencies for these applications. Beyond
Police Management: Throughout history, police management has experienced numerous changes because of the various significant changes that have continued to occur in the society. The emerging trends have contributed to the development of new policing governance, which has had considerable implications for police management. Towards the end of the 20th Century, the governmental police reforms have contributed to an end to public policing, a claim that is regarded as extrapolated
Community Policing Efficacy The Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act of 1994 heralded the beginning of a massive effort to reform policing strategies in the United States, in part through implementation of community-policing programs at the local level. Congress has allocated billions of federal dollars over the years since to support such efforts and by the end of the 20th century, close to 90% of all police departments serving communities
Ashley, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI relates that in 1991: "...the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles charged 13 defendants in a $1 billion false medical billing scheme that was headed by two Russian emigre brothers. On September 20, 1994, the alleged ringleader was sentenced to 21 years in prison for fraud, conspiracy, racketeering, and money laundering. He was also ordered to forfeit $50 million in
Of course, it becomes a very difficult matter to overcome sparse levels of availability when they are encountered (e.g. In the more remote regions of Western Australia). Taken together, the issues suggest that the impact of availability policy on the use of alcohol may be as heterogeneous as patterns of availability themselves. The reduction of one outlet in an urban area has significantly different meaning and implications than the reduction
Changing Nature of Warfare According to generals like Rupert Smith and David Petraeus, postmodern conflict is radically different from warfare between industrialized states, such as the American Civil War and the world wars of the 20th Century. It does not begin with a condition of peace or return to it after the total defeat of the enemy, but rather is a "continuous crisscrossing between confrontation and conflict," often with indecisive results
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now