Police History

Paper Summary:

This paper presents a detailed examination of the history of the police department in America. The writer explores why the nation determined police departments were necessary and how they began their ascent to various cities.

From the Paper:

"Before one can understand the current police departments in America it is important for one to understand how the police came to be viewed as something that was needed. Police departments in America origins have been traced back to early English Society. Before the Norman Conquest there were no police forces that were formally administered and implemented. Instead society depended on something called the pledge system which entailed a type of code of honor. This code said that each village member pledged to protect the entire village against crimes such as thieves and murderers. If any member of the village saw something occurring they were honor bound to make such a fuss that the rest of the village would be alerted. They as well as the village members that they had alerted were honor bound to pursue and deal with the criminal in question. While this system was considered successful for many years as villages grew larger it became necessary to design a more organized system. This is when the tithing system came to be. A tithing was ten a ten family group in a village. The ten families banded together and worked with the honor system of before, but the tithing was also overseen by one person that was called a constable. Constables have since been considered the first real police officer in the world(Police History and Organization History of Police
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/just110/police1.html). "

More papers on Police History:

• Essay # 23422 : "Marketing Metropolitan Police Departments"
• Essay # 69557 : "Recruitment and Training of Police"
• Essay # 90532 : "Police Misconduct"

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