Читать книгу Police in America - Steven G. Brandl - Страница 54

The events that took place in the early to mid-1800s in the United States were not limited to that country. In fact, the United States trailed England in the unfolding of the Industrial Revolution. In 1829, the London Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) was created. At this time, London had a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Londoners had made do without a formal police force as long as they could. Soon after its creation, the LMPD had 1,000 officers. It served as the model for police departments subsequently created in the United States.

The problem for the English was that although the need for a more effective means of policing was obvious, how to go about providing it was not. It was decided that the police department would exist in order to prevent crime, and this was to be accomplished through patrol. The reasoning was that by having officers patrol on foot throughout the city, their presence would deter would-be criminals from committing crimes. It was also decided that the structure of the LMPD should resemble that of the military. The person who is most often given credit for the creation of the LMPD is Sir Robert Peel. It is for this reason that British police officers are today still often referred to as “bobbies.”

The founders of American police departments subscribed to the theory the English had already established: Crime prevention through patrol and using a military structure seemed reasonable. The creators of American police departments also wanted policing to be a local responsibility. With local control of police departments, there was little role for the federal government in law enforcement. Indeed, when the first police departments were created in the mid-1800s, there were few federal laws and thus no need for federal law enforcement agencies. Early police departments operated at the local level and were controlled by citizens who lived in the towns and cities. Another important facet of the initial operations of police departments was that police power was limited by law. The Constitution made this clear.