Watchman Style Of Policing

The field of police work is constantly being forced to develop and improve its protocols, procedures, and practices in an effort to keep pace with the ever-changing society in which it operates and criminal behavior it seeks to eradicate. While the history of policing has been marked by substantial changes throughout time, the work of modern-day police officers and officials demonstrate some of the most substantial adaptations to its surrounding environment that the field has ever seen. In order to understand where the future of policing is heading, it is important to first understand these current trends that are affecting the current landscape of the profession. By

* The police management has a component called watchmen style of procedures which inform officers to ignore minor violations, and settle disputes formally by meeting out street justice.

In his article The Paranoid Style of American Policing, Ta-Nehisi Coates suggests that police officers in the United States are too quick to use lethal force as a resolution to de-escalate a potentially dangerous situation. He believes they should be held accountable for their actions, the same way every day civilians are.

The belief systems found in the police organizations is the idea that crime is only fault by police officers who dislike patrolling of their local communities. Police are above the law in a secrete brotherhood , while the general public are ignorant, obstructive and overly demanding. The anarchic ideas embedded into the officers can lead to misuse of power, misconduct and corruption.

Policing today consists of three eras. These three eras have adapted and built off one another through history (Parr, 2014). The first era started around 1840 to 1930, and is known as the Political Era. The second Era is known as the Reform Era and lasted from 1930 to 1970. The last era is called the Community-Problem Solving Era and is still being adapted and used today. The Political Era emphasizes on meeting the needs of politicians. The police were given power through the local government and the community had very little say in what happened. The police and politicians worked together to control the city and neighborhoods (Palmiotto, 2000). This was often referred to as a ward. The ward politician controlled all the police in their neighborhood. The police officers tasks included not only crime prevention and order but a lot of social service activities that involved their neighborhoods. The officers resembled the ethnic backgrounds of the neighborhoods they lived and worked in and performed their patrols gaining trust from their community (Palmiotto, 2000). This allowed positive integration of police officers leading to more public service, and the trust of the officers to stop crime when is starts.

Law enforcement continued to develop as cities and towns relied on bailiffs, or “watchmen.” Bailiffs maintained a night watch to detect fires and spot thieves. However, the bailiffs were still too few in numbers to handle most emergencies, but they could wake up a sleeping population to assist. Larger cities continued to expand night watch into day wards. Finally, in 1285 the Statute of Winchester codified British practices. The statute officially created the watch and wards, mandated the draft of eligible men to serve, criminalized citizens disregarding another citizen’s outcry, and required citizens to maintain weapons in their homes.

The Frontline documentary, Policing the police, makes the argument that there are many problems with police departments across the United States and uses his correspondence with the Newark, New Jersey Police Department to make that point.

The four eras of policing are political era, reform era, community era, and homeland security era. The political era was between 1840s and 1919 where police agencies were underdeveloped, decentralized, and disorganized in their mission, role, and function. Police organizations nationwide were exposed for their inability to maintain order, to control crime, or to fairly provide appropriate services. The reform era occurred between 1920s and 1970s where police was removed from the political arena and established them more as members of a centralized, professional organization formed for the public good. The primary role of police in this era had contributed to the problems crating negative police-community relations. The community era was between

Police Agencies in modern society are a part of the American fabric to serve and protect the American public. The United States currently have more than 15,000 police agencies, (Walker & Katz, 2011). Police Departments across the United States face similar critical issues policing. All police officers face dangers in the job of policing the dangers can emanate from internal and external origins. Police officers have continued to evolve to serve communities by finding better less than lethal alternatives to weapons used. In addition, police departments have continued to keep up with

     Law enforcement is divided into three major eras throughout history. These eras are the political era, the reform era and the community era. The political era that took place between 1840-1930 was characterized by five points, which was the authority was coming from politicians and the law, a broad social service function, decentralized organization, an intimate relationship with the

Numerous police agency’s and police officials work on a distinctive local, state, and federal level and role. It has its individual area, sectors, and function, and work according to local streets parts inside policing. In order for any local, state, and federal police division to work successfully it must hire chiefs, deputy’s, and sheriffs who retain leadership and who uses creative thinking skills to teach comprehensive, and aggressive instruction to make the police division a tougher department by holding all its workers tasks for doing his or her job according to its agency’s guidelines and procedures known as code of conduct. “Municipal police work for municipalities such as towns or cities, county police and deputy sheriffs work for counties, state police work for states, and federal police work for the federal government. Some have the same duties as one another or very similar duties, and some have different or additional duties. Their jurisdiction is sometimes the main difference. For example, a municipal police officer normally has primary

In today’s society there are three types of policing styles and it tends to vary based on the community. According to Kuykendall (1974), states that the style used in a community by law enforcement is based on different expectations regarding role performance (Kuykendall, 1974). Each style is used to maintain and enforce law and order in the community. The three policing styles that are used in the community are legalistic, watchman, and service style. The legalistic style of policing is focused on enforcing the law and resolving disputes by the book. It is also considered a reactive form of policing. The watchman style policing focuses on maintaining order and preventing crime (Kuykendall, 1974). The service style policing is focused on helping those in the community, instead of enforcing the laws. The policing style that I believe is used in my community is the watchman and legalistic style. Both policing style is used to enforce the law and maintain order in a culturally and ethnically diverse community, by making arrest, keeping the peace and issuing citations.

Kuykendal (2001) states, “A police style is how each department and officer view their particular mission or purpose and identify with particular methods

Police agencies all over the world implement different policing strategies in accordance with the purpose. Community policing is one of the philosophy in which most of the countries effectively working with it. According to U. S. Department of Justice Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social, and fear of crime (n.d). This essay critically examines the conditions, which would impact both positively and negatively on the police procedures required to implement community policing strategy in the Maldives.

Approaches of both community policing and traditional policing models differ in a variety of ways. The characteristics of the policing models are quite different from each other, and community based policing was considered laughable when suggested for the new approach in the early 1970s. Due to community policing’s new operating beliefs, new and unfamiliar expected officer behaviors, and that officers were being held legally responsible for their actions and inactions; the idea and implementation wasn’t widely accepted until 1980’s. Traditional policing was primarily dominated by rampant corruption and lawlessness that affected all levels of the police administration; therefore citizens had little trust if any, in the police officers of the time.