Modern Day Policing

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Ultimately what is the role of police officers in the United States? Their role is split into five different specific tasks. The tasks are protecting life and property, preserving the public space, preventing crime and terrorist activity, detecting and arresting violators of the law, and enforcing the law (Conser 130). Law enforcement within our society is very important, but also very fragile. We expect a lot out of our law enforcement officials but we also expect for them to fulfill the needs of the people within their community. Policing has been a part of our society for years and years, although it wasn’t always ran by the same procedures as it is today. The system itself has evolved tremendously since it began. The roles have changed …show more content…
Beginning with the first colony that settled Law enforcement was the job of the church, they dealt with crime the same way they dealt with sin. In the year 1705 the state of Virginia created slave codes which was defined as “an attempt to regulate and control the behavior of the growing numbers of slaves”. The state of South Carolina followed suite by creating a set of slave laws and creating the first “Slave patrol” (Conser). Our modern-day system of policing has evolved entirely from what is formerly known as “Slave Patrols”. These patrols were enacted to “protect whites from runaway slaves, inhibit insurrection, and authorize the recapture of fugitive slaves” (Conser). Though this is true the system we are familiar with today is something that took a lot of time and dedication to create. Today’s law enforcement system is running off the idea of “customer service” it was previously running off the idea of tradition entirely. The police force began to evolve strictly based off the idea that evolution was necessary. There were several flaws within the system we were previously using, that’s not to say that there aren’t still flaws, there are just far less than before. More threats to society began to arise, which led to a need to more and better officers; more training, more weapons, more people within the police force (Bruce, …show more content…
As each of these factors changes and evolves, as does the role of law enforcement. They must conform to the needs of the society itself to run functionally (Bruce). Sometimes change may be necessary and the only resort. Within the last decade, America has dealt with hundreds of social justice movements that had major effects on our law enforcement system. Our officers weren’t quite as trained in how to tame huge crowds until anti-war movements and the civil rights movements began to arise. During these movements law enforcement officials took on hours of training to learn how to tame huge crowds. They were also given training for new gear and weapons during these times (Bruce). All five of the major tasks of law enforcement came together in these few
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