This paper examines the state of law enforcement professionalism in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on how police conduct during the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam War protests damaged public trust. It discusses specific incidents of civil liberties violations, the militarization of police forces, and the government's legislative response — including the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The paper concludes by reflecting on how the profession has since worked to restore its reputation and reaffirm its commitment to serving and protecting all members of the community.
In the United States and around the world, police forces are formed by the government in order to protect the citizens of a given community. Since before the time the United States was a country, groups were appointed to protect and serve the people who lived here. As time has progressed, people have changed, and technologies and laws have likewise developed. With each period, people have entrusted their police officers to protect them and to preserve and promote the laws of the country and of the state.
However, there have been certain periods in history wherein police have not conducted themselves appropriately — violating certain populations' civil liberties and the letter of the law in order to promote the agendas of other groups. In the 1960s and 1970s, the professionalism of the police in general was called into question because of the behaviors of some of their number, particularly in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement and in many cities across the country where police had to respond to the protests of anti-Vietnam War activists. Past decades had the unfortunate result of damaging the reputation of members in law enforcement because the profession was aligned with the poor choices of a select few. Since that period, police officers all over the nation have been devoted to professionalism and to the perpetuation of the police officer as an everyday hero.
Almost always, the question of professionalism in police conduct has to do with the orders that officers receive, but there have been occasions wherein the actions were neither ordered nor condoned by their superiors. The police force became increasingly militarized throughout the United States, particularly in places where there were tensions between officers and the people they were meant to protect (Reynolds 2009). The effect was that people began to mistrust their police officers. This, in turn, led to an increase in the number of unreported crimes, particularly in minority areas where a larger proportion of people believed that the police did not care about them or their problems.
In the 1960s, the United States was a hotbed of political unrest. In the American South, repressed African Americans and their sympathetic supporters fought to enfranchise those who were denied equal rights by the oppressive white power structures in states such as Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. Black codes allowed state governments to demand the separation and segregation of Black and white members of a community. When African Americans rose up and protested their oppressors, police in those same communities would most often come to the defense of white residents and arrest the protesters — violating their First Amendment right to peaceful assembly. In such instances, the police, rather than protecting the people, were instrumental in the abuse and, in some cases, the killing of American citizens.
"Watts Riot and 1968 legislation prompted police reform"
"Police reaffirm dedication to protecting all citizens"
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