History Of The Watch At Night

Tracking the early beginnings of policing in Newark, NJ was first recorded back in the late 1600 when the establishing of police protection begin. It wasn’t until 1681 the beginning of the Watch at Night, where there were two appointed to patrol the town at night. The two men took on the title as Constable’s and their responsibilities were two very familiar duties; first there were responsible for preventing crime and second, preventing the peace. By 1773, the two constables at the time were required to maintain peace and harmony in the city of Newark. Later on the town’s boundaries began to increase, many felt the responsibilities were to a great extent to extravagance for just two people, so the patrol became nine citizens that would be chosen to serve. Newark was then divided into four watch districts, seven watchmen were appointed for night patrol and they were on duty from nine o’clock at night until dawn. The daily pay for each watchmen was one dollar per night. By 1836 the town of Newark was incorporated and the city became the the third oldest major city in the U.S. The city elected their first mayor, who’s first official acts established the “City Watch.” The City of Newark Watchmen’s duties were defined by ordinance was to patrol the streets and the districts throughout Newark, apprehend or detain until daylight, all offenders against the peace and any suspicious persons whom may be found lurking around in the streets late or unreasonable hours of the night. The first ranking officer, appointed as Captain of the Watch was George C. Sindle and he was paid the same wage as the other watchmen. In 1854 a distinguishing badge was authorized and given to the City Watchmen. Created to look like a star, inscribed with the ti...

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...area. Researchers have realized that even though foot patrol did not exactly lower the rate of the crimes as they have hoped for, but they did realize that maybe people would not commit crimes in those areas if they knew that officers are around almost at every other corner and they would be easily caught right away. Also, in this article, it has been noted that close contact between police and the people helps the former develop first-hand information about crime and possible criminal behavior. Information system such as this is more likely to have a positive long-term impact.

The research of The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment also discusses the effects on officers attitudes and performance. The attitudes of patrol officers toward foot patrol have important implications for implementation, training, assignments, and developing aproaches to overcome resistance.