A Brief History of American Police (Essay Sample)

Political Subdivisions of Police Governmental powers per Federalism, including the specific U. S. Constitution Amendments that established their Powers, as well as the significant historical events, which helped orchestrate America's move toward Law Enforcement.
Introduction
Police power is basically the right of governments to initiate laws and regulations for the eventual benefit of their communities. In the United States, the right to make laws on police power lies on the individual states (Free Dictionary, 2015). The federal government is only limited to make laws on specific grants of power as laid down in the constitution. In addition, the states can make laws governing health, safety, morals and welfare as based on the Tenth Amendment. The state legislatures normally exercise their police powers through various means including enactment of statutes and delegation of powers to cities, villages, towns and counties. Police power may include the right to create police forces and is also the basis for enacting laws on land use, zoning, gambling, fire and building codes, liquor discrimination, parking, licensing of professionals, crime, sanitation, schooling, bicycles, nuisances and motor vehicles.
If a law does not lead to promotion of safety, health or community welfare it may lead to an unconstitutional deprivation of liberty, life or property. A statute enacted as a result of police power may lead to a taking which occurs when a government directly or indirectly deprives a person of property or disturbs his or her enjoyment of property. Federalism is a government system by which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. The national government in federalism normally governs issues affecting the entire country while smaller subdivisions govern local issues (Free Dictionary, 2015). This paper looks into political subdivisions of police governmental powers per federalism in the U.S., including the specific U. S. Constitution Amendments that established their powers, as well as the significant historical events, which helped orchestrate America's move toward law enforcement.
A Brief History of American Police
The history of policing in America goes back to the 15th century and has ever since been full of historical events that helped shape the evolution of the force in terms of its work and practices. Policing in American can be traced heavily on the British influence although it rapidly grew towards a different direction over time (Regilme, 2015). In the year 1285, the Statute of Winchester in England was established and with it began the first police force. Later each of the English counties had a Comes Stabuli or simply a Constable put in place by the king to act as a law enforcer or magistrate. This constable appointed a Shire Reeve or simply Sheriff as an assistant. The Shire Reeve would direct a community to apprehend a criminal. In America, the Puritans came with them the Sheriffs, Constables and Watches who acted as the initial policing apparatus in the early colonial days of America (Turner, 2015). The positions acted more as reactive than proactive and fees were paid to the watchmen and sheriffs for specific duties. Since they had no extra manpower to carry out investigations, the ended as ineffective and there were frequent riots.
In 1840’s, London model metropolitan areas had been established as a result of frequent riots that had happened especially in Boston. America was slow in starting metropolitan police because roving police patrols would remind Americans of British colonial troops. However, there was need to rule America’s frontier as gangs like The James Gang of Kentucky and Missouri had developed many hiding places (Whitworth, 2015). For instance, Meramec Cave, 80 miles southwest of St. Louis was used by gangs as a hiding place, forcing the police to place a bounty on fugitives in order to encourage community policing. However, with the end of slavery, new laws were established to keep the American black people as second class citizens (Turner, 2015). Law enforcement posed various challenges especially with the passing of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution. The rise of organized crime led to bloody wars between the mobs and the police. The rise of the anti-war protests, the civil rights movement and the drug culture needed police to swing into full gear to protect the public and their properties against violent actions (Whitworth, 2015). During the 1970’s and 1980’s, minority police officers were incorporated in the force. With better equipment and training, the police force professionalism through the 1990’s till today has greatly improved.
The US Bill of Rights: The First Ten Amendments
First Amendment; Religious Freedom and Freedom to Print, Assemble, Speak and Petition
In 1789, the Congress proposed the first ten amendments at their first session and upon receiving ratification they became part of the constitution on 15th December, 1791. (Regilme, 2015). These are now called the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment gave rights to religious freedom, the freedom to speak, assemble, print and petition and gave rise to what is commonly referred to as ‘a wall of separation’ between church and state. In this amendment, Congress had agreed not to make any law respecting a religious establishment or prohibiting the freedom of worship. The amendment guarantees freedom of publication, speech, petition and assembly. Even though these various liberty clauses were lumped together, Congress had initially wanted to separate the religious clause from civil liberties (McClellan, 2000).
Religious freedom was promoted through forbidding Congress from favoring one religious group over another. It was not intended as a show of neutrality between believers and non-believers but simply as a means for keeping religious passions away from American politics. However, the amendment restrained only Congress from interfering with religious affairs and not states which had been left free to establish state churches. But the freedoms of assembly, print, petition and speech does not however mean that one was allowed to shout anything one wishes, assemble in any format one likes, print anything one likes or present petition to Congress anything one likes. Simply put, civil liberty is ordered liberty. The freedom of speech and print allows the citizen to criticize the government and hold government officials to account for their deeds while encouraging free exchange of ideas.
Second Amendment: The Right to Bear Arms
This amendment empowers a well, regulated militia which is essential for a free state security and grants the citizens the rights to bear arms. In this amendment the word ‘militia’ refers to ‘armed citizenry’ (McClellan, 2000). The amendment was necessary so that Congress could not disarm state militias and was derived from the colonial experience whereby Americans depended on militia in confronting the British army. Hence maintaining state militia was thought to be a right for each state and essential for safeguarding domestic and foreign tyrants. Since the amendment bars only Congress, it follows that the states can freely regulate the carrying and possession of weapons according to their constitutional rights. If the citizens are disarmed, they will not be able to overthrow or resist tyrannical regimes. Consequently, the right to bear arms is not obsolete as the Federal Courts limit the possession, sale and transportation of various forms of weapons including sawed-off shotguns and machineguns.
Third Amendment: Quartering Troops
Due to memories of British soldiers being quartered in American places of residence at the time of American War of Independence, this amendment was necessary to forbid Congress from allocating soldiers in private houses unless there was direct permission from the householder. This shows that in 1789, there was huge desire to safeguard civilians from military bullying. Within the Bill of Rights, this is the least invoked as the Supreme Court has never interpreted or applied it.
The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure
When a public authority wants to search individuals or their places of residence, this is essential for search warrants. It could also be applied when property regarding legal investigation or action is being seized. Generally, searches without warrants are unreasonable though at certain times, a warrant is not necessary as seen in cases of lawful arrest. If police want to carry out a search, they must first avail themselves before a magistrate and prove under oath the good cause why the search is necessary. In addition, the warrant must show the location and property. Recently, the courts have expanded the requirements to include intangible property as in seizing conversations that are recorded via electronic eavesdropping (McClellan, 2000).
The Fifth Amendment: The Rights of Persons
This amendment protects people from ill treatment by those who possess power and assumes that until proven guilty, one is always innocent. The ancient requirement states that if a person is being tried for a big crime, the grand jury must first indict him. Further no one person should be tried twice for the same offense. In addition, no one should be forced to testify against himself in any criminal case and authorities are not allowed to possess an individual’s property without reasonable compensation (McClellan, 2000). However, the right is not absolute even though it is regularly invoked in normal criminal trial equally in trials of espionage or subversions. If a person is offered immunity so that he is not prosecuted in return for providing testimony, the person must either expect to be jailed or comply or kept in jail for court contempt. The prohibition against acquiring private...