August Vollmer was the police chief of Berkeley (CA) Police Department from 1905 to 1932. He served as the first professor of police administration at the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1930, and he was a professor of criminology at the University of California at Berkeley. He served for one year as the police chief of Los Angeles Police Department (1923-1924) and he was the President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police from 1921 to 1922. A progressive-minded chief and a key advocate for the police professionalization movement, Vollmer often held viewpoints that ran counter to many of his contemporary police chiefs. He was against police brutality and their use of the “third degree,” he opposed the death penalty, and he did not believe that law enforcement was the proper response for illicit drugs in America.
Vollmer’s career in law enforcement began in 1905 after gaining the notice of the publisher of local newspaper in Berkeley, California. The publisher, Friend Richardson, told Vollmer of the corrupt town marshal. Policing at that time was not a credible profession and despite being discouraged from running, Vollmer decided to challenge the incumbent and won by a landslide. Marshal Vollmer would be reelected in 1907 by another landslide, and then in 1909, Berkeley changed its charter and became a city with an appointed Chief of Police, to which Vollmer remained appointed until 1932, when he retired.
Along the way, Vollmer was asked to conduct reviews of various police departments for which he tool leave. In 1923 he was asked to lead the Los Angeles Police Department for one year. Then in 1929, the University of Chicago hired him to be a professor of police administration in their public administra...
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...ion, like prostitution, and like liquor, is not a police problem; it never has been, and never can be solved by policemen. It is first and last a medical problem, and if there is a solution it will be discovered not by policemen, but by scientific and competently trained medical experts whose sole objective will be the reduction and possible eradication of this devastating appetite” (Vollmer, 1936, p. 118).
Vollmer, through his leadership as a police chief, his writings, and the many disciples he educated, influenced American policing for the rest of the Twentieth Century. While many of his ideas were deemed radical at the time, they came to encapsulate what is today considered to be good quality and professional policing. Although Vollmer’s views on narcotics were, and still are, radical, it is curious to ponder if his views on illicit drugs were not prescient.
Officers were rewarded and reprimanded appropriately for the amount of arrests that were made. When Officers successfully prevented or deterred crime it didn’t show on paper. This tied in with officer morale in a big way. The book illustrates that when departments put out arrest quotas for the east side arrests fell, usually to the minimum. Mosko is often very critical of upper police managements distance and ignorance to the actual problems out there.
With reference to the orthodox and revisionist perspectives, assess the statement that ‘the establishment of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 was a rational solution to changes in society and the associated challenges of crime and disorder’. Use a contemporary example to demonstrate how these perspectives can be useful in interpreting modern policing activities.
...f door-to-door enquires, disguising detectives, laying on extra man power and using coroners and police surgeons for accurate reports. However these methods became a problem, the public’s mistrust and dislike of the force resulted in difficulty in solving crimes. With the lack of experience and scientific knowledge solving crime had a poor success rate, technological and scientific advancement aided with investigations. In addition the Metropolitan Police gradually became an expected presence on the streets.
Kelling , G and Wilson, J . ( 1 March 1982) . The Atlantic: Broken window the police
The war on drug not only change the structure of the criminal justice system, it also change the ways that police officers, prosecutors and judges do their jobs. Even worse, the way politicians address crime. The tough stand on drugs started during the Nixon presidency, most of the resources was focus on medical treatment rather than punishment. Although it was a better strategy and alternative than the drug war policies that exist today, it was a very divisive issue between the conservatives and the liberals. The war on drug ignited during the Reagan administration, two third of the financial resources were being spent on law enforcement. In addition, the end of the cold war left the United States with weaponry and resources that needed to be repurposed. As a result, small town were given high power grade artilleries and weaponry, and means to form specialized tactical units such as SWAT teams in case of unusual event. To maintain and justify the need for these new expenditures, SWAT teams are used in any drug warran...
American policing originated from early English law and is profoundly influenced by its history. Early law enforcement in England took on two forms of policing, one of which heavily influenced modern policing and it is known as the watch (Potter, 2013). The watch consisted, at first, of volunteers which had to patrol the streets for any kind of disorder including crime and fire. After men attempted to get out of volunteering by paying others, it became a paid professional position (Walker & Katz, 2012). The three eras of policing in America are shaped by these early ideas and practices of law enforcement. Throughout time, sufficient improvements and advancements have been made from the political era to the professional era and finally the community era which attempts to eliminate corruption, hire qualified officers and create an overall effective law enforcement system.
Schmalleger, F. (2013). Policing: History and Structure. Criminal Justice Today An Introduction Text For the 21st Century (12th ed., ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Peak, K. J. (2006). Views. In K. J. Peak, Policing America: Methods/Issues/Challenges (p. 263). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
At the same time, Los Angeles police units were experiencing difficulties in handling situations in which riots and snipers were terrorizing basic police units. In response to these difficulties, LAPD officer John Nelson presented the concept of a squad which was specially trained to handle such situations to Inspector Darryl F. Gates. Gates approved the concept of a "highly disciplined" ...
J. Edgar Hoover’s record of notable government service has never been matched. He transformed the bureau from a badly managed, corrupt organization to a quality law enforcement agency. As its size and budget have increased over the years, its reputation for competence and integrity has declined. It has lost most of the respect that it enjoyed in Hoover’s day.
Following the years after World War II, the first University of California Police Department (UCPD) was founded at the University of California, Berkeley. It was in September 1947 that the UCPD was founded by the regents of the UC-system as a way for each UC-school to have its own police-department. The UCPD is today a public facility that lies across all UC-campuses and serves the purpose of keeping the university-community safe. The vision statement of the UCPD (specific to UCR) is as follows: “The mission of the University of California Police Department, Riverside is to enhance the quality of life by providing a secure and safe environment through professional service to the University community”. Through having conducted an extensive interview
Time may pass and personal morals may change, but one of the strengths of the United States of America is its unwavering dedication to justice. Throughout time, this country’s methods and laws have grown and adapted, but the basis of the law enforcement’s work has remained the same: the safety and interest of the people.
Bibliography Why Good Cops Go Bad. Newsweek, p.18. Carter, David L. (1986). Deviance & Police. Ohio: Anderson Publishing Co. Castaneda, Ruben (1993, Jan. 18). Bearing the Badge of Mistrust. The Washington Post, p.11. Dantzer, Mark L. (1995). Understanding Today's Police. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. James, George (1993, Mar. 29). Confessions of Corruption. The New York Times, P.8, James, George (1993, Nov. 17). Officials Say Police Corruption is Hard To Stop. The New York times, p.3. Sherman, Lawrence W(1978). Commission Findings. New York Post, P. 28 Walker, J.T. (1992). The police in America, p.243-263, chp. 10, Walker, Samuel (1999).
Wilson, J. (1978). Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management of Law and Order in Eight American Communities. American Journal of Sociology, 75(1), 160-162
“Getting tough on drugs inevitably translates into getting soft on nondrug crime,” they write. “When a decision is made to wage a ‘war on drugs,’ other things that criminal justice resources might do have to be sacrificed.”