CHAPTER I - Lesson 1. Police and
Policing: An Overview
Who is a Police?
Police can be defined as an identity created
by law, funded by government for the
specific purpose of maintaining social order
and to enforce the law.
A body of government employees
trained in methods of law enforcement and
crime prevention and detection and
authorized to maintain the peace, safety,
and order of the community.
Role of Police in Social Life
1. A watchman.
2. A Law Enforcer.
3. A Service Provider.
What is Policing?
Policing refers to the actions taken by a
police agency to fulfil a legal mandate of
which the end result is maintenance of order
and keeping the peace. Policing is the act of
enforcing laws, preventing and solving
crime, maintaining order, and promoting
security and safety through the use of
legitimate authority...
Basic Goals of Policing
a. Enforce laws
b. Preserve peace
c. Prevent crimes
d. Protect civil rights, liberties
e. Provide services
What is the Doctrine of Policing by
Consent?
This doctrine states that police are a
substantially unarmed body who rely upon
community support and goodwill, rather
than force, in the conduct of their duty.
What is Police Discretion in Policing?
Police discretion refers to the fact
that a police work with very little direct
supervision once they are in the field and
often have to make choices about which
course of action (if any) is to be pursued.
What is Comparative Policing?
Refers to the act of determining the
similarities and differences of policing styles,
models, and approaches police
organizations have used and currently using.
Law Enforcement versus Policing
Law Enforcement.
The concept of law enforcement
consists of just that: enforcing laws. In its
purest form, law enforcement requires an
unwavering adherence to rules and
procedures. It is a focus on the letter of the
law rather than the spirit of the law such as.
Citations are issued, arrests are made, and
force is employed with little regard for the
reason or meaning behind a particular law or
policy. It can be a very effective way to
maintain public order and punish crime
inasmuch as it is focused on requiring the
members of a community or society to
comply with the law or face the
consequences. The problem of law
enforcement alone as a response to crime is
that it is singular in its approach, responding
to effects without consideration for causes.
Policing.
The term policing has come to mean
an approach to crime fighting through
community service and problem-solving. The
idea of policing requires a holistic approach
to community service, taking into account
the problems that plague a community and
working with the people within that
community to solve them. It requires
cooperation from residents, business
owners, and leaders who participate in the
process of reducing crime and improving
quality of life. While this idea of community
policing may sound revolutionary, it actually
dates back to the earliest days of the modern
police force. The concept is best articulated
in Sir Robert Peel's nine principles of
policing.
The law enforcement implies
compulsory compliance, policing suggests
voluntary adherence. In that sense, law
enforcement is but one component of
policing, one of many tools in the toolbox
available to police officers and law
enforcement agencies.
The Beginning of Modern Policing
The concept of modern policing,
beyond doubt, originated in England through
the development of the first modern police
forces initiated by the first three
personalities mentioned in the succeeding
which influenced American policing. The
fourth person, an American police officer,
contributed too towards modem policing.
Their contributions to modem policing are as
follows:
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1. Henry Fielding.
As magistrate deputy of Bow Street Court in
1748. He is credited with two major
contributions to the field of policing, namely:
a. Fielding advocated change and
spread awareness about social and
criminal problems through his
writings; and
b. He organized a group of paid
nonuniformed citizens who were
responsible for investigating crimes
and prosecuting offenders. This
group, called the Bow Street
Runners, was the first group paid
through public funds that
emphasized crime prevention in
addition to crime investigation and
apprehension of criminals. While
citizens responsible for social control
used to simply react to crimes, the
Bow Street Runners added the
responsibility of preventing crime
through preventive patrol, changing
the system of policing considerably.
2. Patrick Colquhoun.
A Scottish magistrate, developed the science
of policing in the late 1700s. Colquhoun's
science of policing suggested the following:
a. Police functions must include
detection of crime, apprehension
of offenders, and prevention of
crime through their presence in
public. The function of crime
prevention was supported by
other influential scholars like
Cesare Beccaria in his 1763 essay
On Crimes and Punishment
which proposed that "it is better
to prevent crimes than to punish
them;" and
b. Colquhoun contended that highly
regulated police forces should
form their own separate unit
within the government.
Furthermore, he argued that
judicial officers could provide
oversight and control police
powers if they were organized as
a separate unit within the
government, in effect proposing
the separation of powers
controlled through a system of
checks and balances.
3. Sir Robert Peel.
Peel established the London Metropolitan
Police through Metropolitan Police Act (a
bill passed in Parliament in 1829) which
became the world's first modern organized
police force. It became model for the
American police system and other police
forces in Great Britain but also had great
influence on the style of policing in almost all
industrial societies. The Metropolitan Police
Force also called as Scotland Yard Police was
guided by the following concept:
a. Crime prevention is the primary police
objective;
b. It embodied the principle which states
that: the police are the public, and the
public are the
police (see Peelian Policing Principles
below); and
c. Police constables have to be civil and
courteous to the people.
The informal names are: Met and
MPS; police are often referred to as Bobbies
or Peelers after Sir Robert (Bobby) Peel.
Techniques in Detecting Crimes
Introduced by Robert Peel
a. detectives concealing themselves.
b. secretly photographing,
c. recording conversations, and
d. employment of the first undercover
officer.
The Nine Peelian (Robert Peel) Policing
Principles:
a. To prevent crime and disorder, as an
alternative to their repression by military
force and severity of legal punishment.
b. To recognize always that the power of the
police to fulfill their functions and duties is
dependent on public approval of their
existence, actions and behavior, and on their
ability to secure and maintain public respect.
c. To recognize always that to secure and
maintain the respect and approval of the
public means also the securing of the willing
co-operation of the public in the task of
securing observance of laws.
d. To recognize always that the extent to
which the co-operation of the public can be
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secured diminishes proportionately the
necessity of the use of physical force and
compulsion for achieving police objectives.
e. To seek and preserve public favor, not by
pandering to public opinion, but by
constantly demonstrating absolutely
impartial service to law, in complete
independence of policy, and without regard
to the justice or injustice of the substance of
individual laws, by ready offering of
individual service and friendship to all
members of the public without regard to
their wealth or social standing, by ready
exercise of courtesy and friendly good
humor, and by ready offering of individual
sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
f. To use physical force only when the
exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is
found to be insufficient to obtain public co-
operation to an extent necessary to secure
observance of law or to restore order, and to
use only the minimum degree of physical
force which is necessary on any particular
occasion for achieving a police objective.
g. To maintain at all times a relationship with
the public that gives reality to the historic
tradition that the police are the public and
that the public are the police, the police
being only members of the public who are
paid to give full-time attention to duties
which are incumbent on every citizen in the
interests of community welfare and
existence.
h. To recognize always the need for strict
adherence to police- executive functions,
and to refrain from even seeming to usurp
the powers of the judiciary, of avenging
individuals or the State, and of
authoritatively judging guilt and punishing
the guilty.
i. To recognize always that the test of police
efficiency is the absence of crime and
disorder, and not the visible evidence of
police action in dealing with them.
Sir Robert Peel's contribution led
people to regard him the father of modern
policing [law enforcement].
Elements of English Police Forces
Significant to Policing Modern.
First, borrowing from the Bow Street
Runners, their mission was crime prevention
and control. The philosophy that it was
better to prevent crime than simply respond
to it greatly influenced the role of modern
police officers.
Second, their strategy was to maintain a
visible presence through preventive patrol.
Finally, the third element was that of a
quasi-military organizational structure.
These three elements of policing
developed in the early 1800s in the London
police department had a significant impact
on modern policing.
It is worth to note that in France, the
New Police also known as Serjents was
established in March 1829, the same year
the MPS of Sir Robert Peel was created. The
Serjents appeared on the streets of Paris,
dressed in blue uniforms to make them easily
recognizable by all citizens. They were lightly
armed with a white cane during the day and
a saber at night, underscoring the fact that
they were a civilian, not a military, body.
However, the first non-military policing role
in France was established in Paris in 1667,
under Louis XIV known as Basse Police. The
Basse, with its wide powers, ensures the
welfare of the citizens, and regulates aspects
of food, housing, health and safety.
4. August Vollmer. Vollmer, during the
early 20th Century, is famous for the
development of the principles of modern
police administration. Advocated the
concepts of administrative efficiency sought
to "centralize the authority within police
departments" and to "rationalize the
procedures of command control."
The Berkeley Police Department,
under the leadership of Chief Vollmer, was at
the forefront of Police innovation. These
included:
a. In 1906, installation of the first Modus
Operandi (MO) System.
b. In 1907, first use of scientific investigation
(Kelinschmidt Case analysis of blood, fibers
and soil).
c. In 1907, establishment of the
department's police school. It included
instruction from professors on such subjects
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as the law and evidence procedures. This
was the first school of its kind in the world
and had a far-reaching effect on law
enforcement.
d. In 1911, first use of the first Police
Motorcycle Patrol. e. In 1913, he changed
Police Motorcycle Patrol into automobiles
for patrolling.
f. In 1916, establishment of the first School
of Criminology at University of California, at
Berkeley.
g. In 1918, began using intelligence tests in
recruiting police officers; Chief Vollmer
being a strong advocate of college educated
police officers [thirty-six-month college level
program in police education). Vollmer
believed that higher education would be the
vehicle to convert the police occupation into
a profession.
Criminology, which evolved as an institution
dedicated to studying police problems and
developing solutions. His contributions led
the scholars to regard him the Father of
American [Modern] Policing.
Vollmer Significant Statements
a. Your main job as a cop on the beat is not
to make a lot of arrests, but to help prevent
crime. The best way to do this is to start with
the children. Make friends with them. Guide
them towards law abiding citizenship. Show
them that the law is their friend not their
enemy.
b. The policeman's job is the highest calling
in the world. The men who do that job
should be the finest men. They should be the
best educated. They should be college
graduates. That's what policemen should be.
And what are they? Dumbbells.

h. In 1920, the first lie detector instrument

was developed at University of California for
use by the Berkeley Police Department.

i. In 1921, began using a psychiatric

screening in police recruitment.

j. In 1923, the first Junior Traffic Police

Program was established.

k. In 1924, established one of the first single

fingerprint systems.

l. In 1925, established the first Crime

Prevention Division and hired the first Police
Woman.

m. In 1941, he served as president of

American Society of Criminology which he
earlier founded.

Vollmer pioneered a more

professional approach to policing in Berkeley
that influenced police reform efforts
nationwide. A strong proponent of scientific
policing, he opposed capital punishment and
embraced a social work approach to policing,
visiting local jails himself each morning to
talk to inmates and urging his officers to
interact with members of the community
while walking their beat.

Vollmer believed in the importance

of proper training and education for police
and helped found the Berkeley School of