Policing dates back over 10,000 years ago when police were employed through ancient civilizations, early American agencies, and frontiers. In earlier times every society defined crime for its self, each society had its own way of establishing order, chasing criminals, and keeping or at least attempting to keep order. Once populations increased and individuals became less influenced by family or cultures laws were established and written down so that the people could become familiar with them a process called methods of social control was introduced to enforced laws. There are several eras of policing including the Political era, the Reform era, and the Community Problem- Solving era in which I will discuss. During the …show more content…
August Vollmer and O.W. Wilson are credited with advancing the Reform movement which ended the political era. Vollmer also referred to as the Father of American Policing started the first college education and training for police at the University of California at Berkeley. Vollmer called for all police to, enhance their accountability, ensure impartiality and increase their honesty. Wilson established his own reform efforts by adopting two key assumptions for Frederick D. Tylor’s scientific theory of administration: officers are inherently uninterested in their work if they are left unsupervised the work be avoided, and officer have or no interest in the substance of their work, the only sole interest between officers and management is found in economic incentives. With the two provisions provided a division of labor and unity of control evolved within policing. With all of the change the police organization still had trouble keeping up with the American culture growth moving so rapidly. So police were referred to as the “thin blue line” (Walker) and required greater empathy with their community to solve community problems and bring closer to their mission of less