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BRIEF CONTENTS

Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xiv
About the Authors xv

PART I: Policing Foundations 1


Chapter 1: Police in a Democracy 2
Chapter 2: Police History 30
Chapter 3: Legal Issues 60
Chapter 4: Police Strategies 96

PART II: Police Administration 131


Chapter 5: Police Organization and Management 132
Chapter 6: Selection and Development 172
Chapter 7: Field Operations: Foundations 210
Chapter 8: Innovations in Field Operations 236

PART III: Police Behavior 263


Chapter 9: Behavior and Misconduct 264
Chapter 10: Force and Coercion 306
Chapter 11: Accountability and Ethics 346

PART IV: Contemporary Issues 381


Chapter 12: Diversity and Inclusion 382
Chapter 13: Stress and Officer Safety 414
Chapter 14: Higher Education 448
Chapter 15: Emerging Issues 474

Voices from the Field: Biographical Sketches 507


Glossary 513
Photo Credits 530
Name Index 531
Subject Index 539

vii
CONTENTS

Preface xiii Southern Colonial and Frontier Police


Acknowledgments xiv Development: A Minority Perspective on the
About the Authors xv Development of American Police 46
State Police 48
Texas and Massachusetts 48
PART I: POLICING FOUNDATIONS 1 Pennsylvania 48
Highway Patrol 49
CHAPTER 1 Police in a Democracy 2 Federal Law Enforcement 50
Policing a Free Society 5 The Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Marshal
Police and Government 5 Service 50
Police and Rule of Law 7 Postal Inspectors 51
Police, Terrorism, and Homeland Security 9 The Secret Service 52
Police Systems 9 The Federal Bureau of Investigation 53
The U.S. Police System 12 Summary 57
Other Types of Law Enforcement Agencies 15
Similarities and Differences 17 CHAPTER 3 Legal Issues 60
Police Role and Purpose 18 Criminal Procedure 61
Law Enforcement or Politics? 20 Searches and Seizures of Persons 63
Crime-Fighting or Social Service? 20 Searches and Seizures of Property 68
Proactive or Reactive? 21 Interrogations and Confessions 74
Police Activities and Workload 22 Civil Liability 77
Police Goals and Strategies 23 Costs of Liability in Policing 78
Looking Ahead 26 Avenues of Liability 79
Summary 27 Civil Liability in State Courts 79
Civil Liability in Federal Courts 81
CHAPTER 2 Police History 30 Emerging Liability Issues for the Twenty-First
Foundations of Policing 31 Century 86
Early Policing 31 Use of Force 87
Policing in Nineteenth-Century England 33 Impact on Officers 88
The Emergence of Modern Policing in the United Summary 91
States 35
The First City Police Forces 35 CHAPTER 4 Police Strategies 96
The County Sheriff 37 Evolving Strategies of Policing 97
Vigilance Committees 37 Landmark Studies of Police Effectiveness 98
Modern American Policing 38 Patrol Studies 100
The Political Era 38 Response Time Studies 101
Police Development 38 Criminal Investigation Studies 101
Criticism in the Political Era 41 Strategic Developments 103
The Reform Era 41 Improving Crime-Control Effectiveness 103
ix
x Contents

Improving Police–Community Relations 105 Research and Development 166


Improving Professionalism 108 Education and Training 167
Developing Evidence-Based Practices 109 Summary 167
Strategic Alternatives 111
Community Policing 111
CHAPTER 6 Selection and
Problem-Oriented Policing 118
Development 172
Summary 124
Recruitment 174
Recruitment Methods 175
PART II: POLICE Recruiting for Diversity 175
ADMINISTRATION 131 Recruitment Toolkit 176
Selection 177
CHAPTER 5 Police Organization and Preemployment Standards 178
Management 132 General Suitability 180
Preemployment Testing 183
The Managerial Process 134 Recruit Screening Methods 186
The Evolution of Police Management 136 Americans with Disabilities Act 189
Classical Police Management 136 Development 189
Behavioral Police Management 136 Recruit Training 189
Contemporary Police Management 137 Program Orientation 189
Organizational Design 138 Philosophy and Instructional Methods 190
Criticisms of the Paramilitary Design 140 Curriculum Development and Content 192
Influence of Community Policing 141 Curriculum Updates 194
Structuring Police Discretion 142 Effectiveness of Recruit Training 197
Managing Police Performance 143 Field Training 199
Measuring What Matters 143 Field Training Officer Program 199
Police Organizational Performance 144 Police Training Officer Program 200
Police Unit Performance 145 Career Growth 201
Supervision and Police Performance 147 In-Service Training 202
Managing Group Behavior 148 Specialized Training 202
Police Subcultures 148 Promotion and Assessment Centers 203
Employee Associations and Unions 149 Lateral Entry 204
Managing Critical Incidents 150 Summary 204
Media Relations and Strategic
Communications 151
Organizational Change 152 CHAPTER 7 Field Operations:
Reorganizing 153 Foundations 210
Improving Leadership and Management 153 The Patrol Function 211
Revising Policies and Procedures 154 Historical Development 212
Changing Strategies and Tactics 155 Patrol Methods 214
Changing Behavior and Culture 155 Use of Patrol Resources 216
The Change Process 157 Proactive Arrests and Crackdowns 222
Resistance to Change 157 Police Pursuits 222
Overcoming Resistance to Change 159 The Investigative Function 225
Case Studies 159 Historical Development 226
Madison, Wisconsin 159 Selected Research on Investigative
Chicago 162 Operations 228
New York 163 Crime Gun Intelligence Centers 228
Los Angeles 164 Advances in Physical Evidence: The Automated
Cincinnati 164 Fingerprint Identification System and
Institutionalizing Innovation and Change 165 DNA 229
Continuous Improvement 165 Bias/Hate Crime Programs 231
Contents xi

Detective–Patrol Relationships 232 Re-engineering Training 315


Summary 232 Areas of Training 315
Police Culture and the Use of Force 318
CHAPTER 8: Innovations in Field Controversy and the Use of Force 321
Operations 236 Inappropriate Force 324
Brutality and Excessive Force 324
Community-Based Approaches 238
Physical and Psychological Force in Police
Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy 238
History 325
Broken Windows Policing 241
Frequency of Excessive Force and Brutality 327
Place-Based Approaches 243
Brutality in the Twenty-First Century 330
Focused Interventions 243
Hot-Spots Policing 243 Deadly Force 333
Category 1: Death 334
Gun Violence 247
Category 2: Injury 335
Intelligence-Led Policing 248
Category 3: Noninjury 335
Predictive Policing 249
Individual and Situational Factors 336
Person-Based Approaches 250
Environmental and Departmental Variations 336
Focused Deterrence Initiatives 251
Racial Considerations 338
What Works in Policing 253 Legal and Policy Changes 338
Summary 257 Summary 339
PART III: POLICE BEHAVIOR 263 CHAPTER 11 Accountability and
Ethics 346
CHAPTER 9 Behavior and Internal Accountability Mechanisms 348
Misconduct 264 Bureaucratic Organization and Management 348
Perspectives of Police Behavior 265 Internal Investigation 350
Universalistic Perspectives 265 Issues in Internal Investigations 354
Particularistic Perspectives 266 Early Warning/Early Identification Systems 356
Socialization versus Predisposition 267 Body-Worn Cameras 357
Early Examinations of Police Behavior 270 Effectiveness of Internal Investigations 358
Decision Making and Police Discretion 273 External Accountability Mechanisms 359
Organizational Factors 275 Civilian Review 359
Neighborhood Factors 276 Police Auditor Systems 362
Situational Factors 277 The Limits of Oversight Mechanisms 364
Individual (Officer) Factors 282 Professional Standards 365
Police Deviance 284 The Police Professionalization Movement 365
Types of Deviance and Misconduct 285 Criteria of Police Professionalization 366
The Prevalence of Police Deviance 286 Ethical Standards 369
Deviant Officers 287 Ethical Perspectives 370
The Persistence of Corruption 290 Ethical Dilemmas 373
Are Gratuities a Type of Misconduct? 294 The Limits of Professional and Ethical
Police Sexual Misconduct 294 Standards 373
The Drug War and Police Deviance 296 Summary 375
Organizational Responses 298
Summary 299
PART IV: CONTEMPORARY
CHAPTER 10 Force and Coercion 306 ISSUES 381
Police–Citizen Interactions 308
Context of Force 308 CHAPTER 12 Diversity and Inclusion 382
National Estimates on Police Use of Force 311 Racial Minorities in Policing 385
Learning to Use Force 312 Unequal Treatment 386
Training 313 Performance of African American Police 386
xii Contents

Women in Policing 388 The Impact of Higher Education on Policing 456


Unequal Treatment 389 Higher Education and Attitudes 456
Performance of Women Officers 390 Higher Education and Performance 458
Affirmative Action 392 Higher Education and Use of Force 459
Equal Employment Opportunity 393 Higher Education and Promotion 460
Increasing Diversity in Police Departments 394 Higher Education and Job Satisfaction 461
Promotional Opportunities 398 Higher Education and Terrorism 461
Integration of Minorities and Women into Validating Higher Education for Police 462
Policing 401 Higher Education as a Bona Fide Occupational
Police Culture 401 Qualification 462
Structural Characteristics 403 Higher Education and Discrimination 463
Sexual Harassment 403 Higher-Education Incentive Programs 464
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Higher-Education Requirements and Policy
Officers 405 Implications 466
Future Prospects 406 Moving Forward: Beyond Traditional
Summary 408 University-Based Education? 469
Summary 469
CHAPTER 13 Stress and Officer
Safety 414 CHAPTER 15 Emerging Issues 474
The Concept of Stress 415 Changes in American Society 476
Occupational Stress 416 Generational Differences 476
Overview of Stressors 417 Cultural Diversity 478
Police Stressors 417 Immigration and Migration 479
Emerging Sources of Stress 420 Shifting Economics 480
Line-of-Duty and Crisis Situations 421 Modern Problems 482
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder 423 Crime Trends 482
Shift Work 426 Mass Shootings 484
Social Supports and Police Stress 427 Drugs 485
Consequences of Stress 428 Mental Health 486
Alcohol Abuse 428 Modern Technology 487
Drug Abuse 430 Crime Detection and Crime Solving 489
Suicide 430 Surveillance and Privacy 490
Stress and the Impact on Families 432 Officer Safety and Accountability 491
Policies and Programs 433 Social Media 492
Officer Safety 434 Long-Term Trends 493
Danger and Police Work 437 Professionalization 493
Improving Safety and Reducing Fatalities 440 Privatization 494
Summary 442 Federalization 494
Militarization 496
Terrorism and Homeland Security 497
CHAPTER 14 Higher Education 448
Summary 500
The Development of Higher-Education
Programs for Police 450 Voices from the Field: Biographical Sketches 507
Federal Programs and Support for Higher
Glossary 513
Education 452
Photo Credits 530
Quality of Higher-Education Programs 453
Higher-Education Requirements Name Index 531
for Police 454 Subject Index 539
PREFACE

P olice & Society offers a comprehensive introduction to policing in the United States.
The text is both descriptive and analytical in nature, covering the process of policing,
police behavior, organization, operations, and historical perspectives. Contemporary
issues and future prospects are also addressed. Throughout the text, an emphasis is placed
on describing the relationship between the police and the public and how this relationship
has changed through the years. To adequately explain the complex nature of police opera-
tions in a democracy, we have integrated the most important theoretical foundations, re-
search findings, and contemporary practices in a comprehensible, yet analytical manner.
Because of the substantial increase of published research in the field and consistent with
previous editions of this text, in the eighth edition we have attempted to include only the
most valid and reliable research available, leading to the “best policies and practices” in
policing. We emphasize in-depth discussions of critical police issues rather than attempt-
ing to cover—in a relatively brief manner—every conceivable topic or piece of research in
the field. We believe this approach contributes more substantially to the intellectual and
practical development of the field of policing.
Although all chapters have been revised and updated, we focused additional attention
on emerging themes that are important to students of policing, including evidence-based
strategies to prevent crime; evolving crime trends; policing in a changing American soci-
ety; advances in technology; policing in an era of declining budgets; immigration; lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender issues; legitimacy; procedural justice; terrorism/homeland
security; and growing concerns about surveillance and privacy.
In addition, numerous topics have been significantly expanded, as follows: legitimacy,
procedural justice, criminal procedure, misconduct, racial and gender diversity, officer
stress and safety, contemporary policing interventions, national estimates on police use of
force, social media, intelligence-led policing, competing police strategies, and the bottom
line of policing.
There are two significant structural changes to the eighth edition that deserve high-
lighting. First, we combined two chapters—Chapter 5 contains information on police or-
ganization and management, which also includes organizational change. Second, we
significantly expanded the discussion on field operations into two separate chapters.
Chapter 7 focuses on foundations of field operations and investigations, and Chapter 8
focuses on policing innovations. The goal of separating foundations and innovations is so
that each topic can be discussed and expanded fully. We are grateful for the reviewers who
recommended these revisions to Police & Society.
To provide the most realistic and up-to-date view of the police, several types of offsets
are provided. “Inside Policing” boxes provide a brief description of real-world police issues
and operations as well as biographical sketches that highlight the contributions of

xiii
xiv Preface

influential police leaders. We have also incorporated contemporary discussions from


Modern Policing (https://gcordner.wordpress.com/), a blog managed by one of the authors
(Cordner). Here students are directed to additional articles, reports, op-eds, editorials, and
news stories directly related to topics within the chapter. “Voices from the Field” boxes
highlight nationally recognized experts, who provide their insights into contemporary
police practices and problems in a thought-provoking format.
The eighth edition features an expanded glossary of key terms, and each chapter begins
with a listing of key terms. Ancillaries to enhance instruction include a Companion Web-
site and a revised and expanded Ancillary Resource Center for Instructors.
We thank the many police officers, police executives, professors, and students with
whom we have interacted over the years. Their experiences and insights have given us the
basis for many of our ideas and have provided us with a basis for conceptualizing critical
issues in policing. We hope this book increases the understanding and appreciation of
policing in society and encourages thought-provoking dialogue among students and the
police.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We continue to enjoy an outstanding working relationship with Oxford University Press
and thank those who contributed significantly to the production of this edition, including
Steve Helba, our editor, and his assistant, Kora Fillet. We also thank those who reviewed
the book for their thoughtfulness and insight, including Carl L. Bennett Jr., Florida A&M
University; Mengyan Dai, Old Dominion University; Nicole Doctor, Ivy Tech Community
College; Michael Herbert, Bemidji State University; Gary Kowaluk, Lincoln University;
Dwayne Marshall, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania; Hyon Namgung, ­Metropolitan
State University of Denver; James O’Sullivan, Pace University; Joseph Schafer, S­ outhern
Illinois University Carbondale; Ericka Wentz, University of West Georgia; and Chernoh
M. Wurie, Virginia Commonwealth University. We appreciate the assistance of the Kansas
City (MO) Police Department Media Unit, especially Sergeant Jacob Becchina, for provid-
ing us with images and artwork that appear throughout this edition.
We especially thank all of the contributors to the “Voices from the Field” offsets
throughout the text. These individuals are experts in policing and academe and have
served in policy-making positions in police departments throughout the United States.
Their contributions to our discussion on the police are significant, and they have provided
a perspective on policing that cannot be found in any other forum.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Kenneth Novak received his Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati
and is currently a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the
University of Missouri–Kansas City. He has published scientific research articles on a va-
riety of topics in policing, including officer decision making, citizens’ attitudes toward the
police, racially biased policing, and program evaluation. He has conducted research with
a number of criminal justice agencies, including the Kansas City Police Department, the
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Mis-
souri. He is coauthor of the third edition of Police Management (2002, Roxbury). Follow
Ken on Twitter at @KenNovak_1.

Gary Cordner is professor emeritus of criminal justice at Kutztown University in Pennsyl-


vania. He taught for 21 years at Eastern Kentucky University, also serving as director of the
Kentucky Regional Community Policing Institute and dean of the College of Justice &
Safety. He received his doctorate from Michigan State University and served as a police
officer and police chief in Maryland. Cordner has coauthored textbooks on police admin-
istration and criminal justice planning and coedited several anthologies on policing. He
edited the American Journal of Police from 1987 to 1992 and Police Quarterly from 1997 to
2002. Cordner is a past president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and founder
and former chair of that organization’s Police Section. He recently completed a nine-year
term on the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and serves as
academic director in the Baltimore Police Academy. Follow Gary on T ­ witter at @gcordner
and his blog at https://gcordner.wordpress.com.

Brad Smith received his Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. He is
a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Wayne State University in Detroit.
His research focuses on policing, and he has published in a variety of areas, including ar-
ticles on police discretionary behavior, citizens’ attitudes toward the police, the use of
deadly force, and police brutality. He is also a coauthor of Race and Police Brutality: Roots
of an Urban Dilemma (2008, State University of New York Press).

Roy Roberg received his doctorate from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he also
taught. Other teaching experiences include Louisiana State University and San Jose State
University, where he taught in the Justice Studies Department for more than 30 years and
now resides as professor emeritus. He has published extensively in the areas of police organi-
zational behavior and change, managerial issues, and higher education in policing. He is the
editor of an anthology on policing and coeditor of an anthology on corrections and is the
author or coauthor of numerous texts, including the third edition of Police Management. He
served as a police officer in a large county department of public safety in Washington State.
xv
Part I

Policing
Foundations
CHAPTER 1

Police in a
Democracy

CHAPTER OUTLINE
■■ Policing a Free Society
Police and Government
Police and Rule of Law
Police, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
■■ Police Systems

■■ The U.S. Police System

Other Types of Law Enforcement Agencies


Similarities and Differences
■■ Police Role and Purpose

Law Enforcement or Politics?


Crime-Fighting or Social Service?
Proactive or Reactive?
Police Activities and Workload
Police Goals and Strategies
■■ Looking Ahead

■■ Summary

■■ Critical Thinking Questions

■■ References
CHAPTER 1 Police in a Democracy 3

KEY TERMS

■■ case law ■■ federalism ■■ reactive


■■ civil law ■■ homeland security ■■ regional police
■■ consolidated agencies ■■ jurisdiction ■■ rule of law

■■ contract law enforcement ■■ private police ■■ separation of powers

■■ counterterrorism ■■ proactive ■■ special-jurisdiction police

■■ criminal justice system ■■ procedural law ■■ substantive law

■■ criminal law ■■ public police ■■ task forces

■■ discretion ■■ public safety agencies ■■ tribal police

T he police have power and authority and, as we have been reminded over the past
several years, the actions they take are frequently controversial. The functions that
police perform are critical to the safety of people and communities, but those very func-
tions sometimes collide with our rights, freedoms, and privacy. Recent events and devel-
opments illustrate some of the issues and challenges surrounding modern policing today:

■■ In response to complaints about “police militarization,” in 2012 the federal govern-


ment temporarily suspended its “1033 program” through which state and local law
enforcement agencies could obtain surplus military equipment (Balko 2012; Wofford
2014). The program later resumed with additional restrictions on the types of equip-
ment available and clearer limitations on how the equipment can be used (Executive
Office of the President 2014).
■■ A fatal police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, in September 2014 led to several
months of tense confrontations and an ongoing national dialogue about police use of
force, Black Lives Matter, transparency, and accountability (Civil Rights Division
2015). Subsequent police-related deaths in New York, Cleveland, Baltimore, North
Charleston, and Chicago variously resulted in protests, riots, indictments, and
convictions.
■■ In response to national concerns, a President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing
was established by the Obama administration. The task force published its final
report in 2015, including 64 recommendations plus 92 action items in six main topic
areas: Building Trust & Legitimacy, Policy & Oversight, Technology & Social Media,
Community Policing & Crime Reduction, Training & Education, and Officer Well-
ness & Safety (President’s Task Force 2015).
■■ Responding to public and congressional pressure, in 2015 the Department of Justice
(DOJ) halted its “equitable sharing” program through which a portion of assets
seized from suspects in a federal case can be distributed to state and local law en-
forcement agencies that participated in the investigation (O’Harrow, Horwitz, and
Rich 2015). Critics complain that investigations become profit driven and the people
who lose their property are often never convicted. The program resumed in 2016
after the DOJ placed additional restrictions on it (Ingraham 2016).
■■ Fourteen people were killed and 22 seriously injured in December 2015 when a
young married couple attacked a holiday gathering in San Bernardino, California
(Finnegan 2016). In the aftermath, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and
Apple engaged in a heated dispute over access to information on the suspects’
4 Part I Policing Foundations

encrypted iPhone. The company resisted demands to open a “backdoor” to the


phone, saying it would compromise the privacy of all owners of the popular device.
Before the matter could be litigated, the FBI withdrew its demand, saying it had ob-
tained a separate “tool” that unlocked the phone (Groden 2016).
■■ The Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), exercised oversight of at
least 25 law enforcement agencies as of 2016, including Albuquerque, Cleveland, Fer-
guson, New Orleans, Seattle, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office (Special
Litigation Section 2016). Another 10 police departments were engaged in collabora-
tive reform projects with a different branch of the DOJ, the COPS Office, including
Baltimore, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and San Francisco (Office of Community Ori-
ented Policing Services 2016). Since 2017, though, the Trump administration has
sharply curtailed these kinds of federal oversight of local police.
■■ Early in 2016, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) produced a set of 30
“guiding principles” designed to emphasize deescalation of critical incidents and
stricter standards on police use of lethal force. The International Association of
Chiefs of Police (IACP) and police labor groups quickly criticized the guidelines,
arguing that they were inconsistent with prevailing law and would jeopardize officer
safety (Jackman 2016).
■■ In February 2018, a former student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
in Parkland, Florida, and fatally shot 17 people, including 14 students, wounding 17
others. Response by the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction, the Broward
County Sheriff’s Office, was harshly criticized for not being consistent with modern
active-shooter policies and training (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public
Safety Commission 2019). Ten days after receiving a commission report on the inci-
dent and response, the Florida governor suspended the Broward County sheriff
(Romo 2019).
■■ During 2018, 150 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty, including 52 by
gunfire, 40 by motor vehicle crash, and 16 due to 9/11-related illnesses (Officer Down
Memorial Page 2019). The 2018 total was lower than each of the previous four years.
Although police fatalities peaked at 284 in 1974 and have generally decreased over
the past 40+ years (Bier 2015), any time the number goes up causes grave concern
and tends to inflame political passions (Gainor 2014).

To begin to understand these kinds of situations and controversies, we must start with
some basic questions: Why do the police exist? What do they do? What are their problems?
How has policing changed over the years? The central theme of this book is to attempt to
answer these and related questions about police in the United States.
One note about semantics: Throughout this book, the terms police and law enforcement
are used interchangeably. With either term, the intent is to refer to all those who provide
police services, whether they work for a police department, sheriff’s office, state police, or
federal agency.
This book contains a lot of information. To help you digest it, the book is organized into
four sections:

1. Policing foundations, including a discussion of the democratic context of policing


and the police role, the history of police, legal issues, and the evolving strategies used
by police.
CHAPTER 1 Police in a Democracy 5

2. Police administration, which includes a discussion of police management and orga-


nizational behavior, police selection and development, and police field operations.
3. Police behavior, which includes a discussion of discretion, behavior and misbehavior,
police authority and the use of coercion, and police professionalism and
accountability.
4. Contemporary issues, including higher education, cultural diversity, stress and offi-
cer safety, and the future of policing.

Each chapter contains special sections called “Voices from the Field” and “Inside Polic-
ing.” These sections provide brief descriptions of real-world police issues, excerpts from
research studies, and brief descriptions of the contributions of important historical and
contemporary figures in law enforcement.

Policing a Free Society


The police play a double-edged role in a free society. On the one hand, they protect our
freedom—not only our rights to own property, to travel safely from place to place, and to
remain free from assault, but also such fundamental rights as freedom of speech, freedom
of assembly, and freedom to change the government through elections. However, the
police also have the power to limit our freedom through surveillance, questioning, search,
and arrest. It is particularly important to understand this anomalous situation when
thinking about policing in the United States because “the police . . . are invested with a
great deal of authority under a system of government in which authority is reluctantly
granted and, when granted, sharply curtailed” (Goldstein 1977, 1).
In our democratic system, government is based on consensus of the people, but policing
often comes into play when agreement breaks down. In our system, government is e­ xpected
to serve the people, but police often give out “services” that people do not want—orders,
tickets, arrests. In our system people are largely free to do as they please, but police can
force them to stop. In our system everyone is considered equal, but police have more power
than the rest of us. It has been said that “democracy is always hard on the police” (Berkeley
1969, 1). It might also be said that police can be hard on democracy.
These factors indicate why the opposite of a democratic state is often called a police
state. Democracy represents consensus, freedom, participation, and equality; the police
represent regulation, restriction, and the imposition of government authority on an indi-
vidual. That is why the police in a democracy are often confronted with hostility, opposi-
tion, and criticism no matter how effectively or fairly they operate.
Police and Government
The word police is derived from the Greek words politeuein, which means to be a citizen
or to engage in political activity, and polis, which means a city or state. This derivation
emphasizes that policing is every citizen’s responsibility, although in the modern world it
is a responsibility that is often delegated to certain officials who do it on a full-time basis.
Also, the derivation emphasizes that policing is political—not in the sense of Republicans
versus Democrats, but in the sense that policing entails carrying out decisions made by
the people and their representatives, decisions that benefit some members of society but
not others.
Today, we tend to say the same thing in a slightly different way—police enforce the law
and carry out the policies of the government. Governments are vested with police power to
regulate matters of health, welfare, safety, and morality because a society requires
6 Part I Policing Foundations

structure and order if it is to be effective in meeting the needs of its members. One impor-
tant expression of police power in a society is a police, or law enforcement, organization.
The activities and behavior of the police are determined, in part, by the type of govern-
ment of which they are a part. In more totalitarian governments, power is exercised by
only one person (e.g., a dictator), a small number of individuals, or one political party. The
established laws and policies that control all aspects of life in a totalitarian state are
­intended to maintain the interests of those in power; the social order is preserved at the
expense of individual freedom. More democratic governments, by contrast, are based on
the principle of “participation of the governed.” The members of a democratic society
either directly participate in deciding the laws or elect representatives to make such deci-
sions for them.
The United States has a republican form of government known as federalism. Some
powers are exercised by the national government, but many others are decentralized to
state and local units of government to allow more people to participate in the political
system and to limit the power of those individuals elected to national political office.
Among the governmental functions that are largely delegated to state and local govern-
ments is policing.
Another important organizational feature of the U.S. government is separation of
powers, which results in three branches of government: executive, judicial, and legislative.
This separation exists to provide a system of “checks and balances” so that one branch of
government will not become too powerful. In the United States, the combination of feder-
alism and separation of powers results in a governmental system that is highly fragmented,
with widely dispersed power and authority. This system is sometimes criticized for being
inefficient and incapable of governing effectively, but that is exactly what its designers
­intended—they wanted a limited form of government (including police) that would not
interfere with peoples’ freedoms any more than absolutely necessary.
Law enforcement is a responsibility of the executive branch of government in our
system. Checks and balances help to constrain policing in two fundamental ways. First,
the police do not make the laws they enforce—the legislature does that, along with appro-
priating the money that police agencies need to operate. Second, the police do not decide
what happens to people who violate the law and are arrested—the judicial branch does
that, along with interpreting and reinterpreting the meaning of laws in our
changing society.
Government and laws are created through a political process or system. Voters, special-
interest groups (e.g., the National Rifle Association, the American Medical Association, or
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), political parties, and
elected officials are active participants in the political process. Theories of political deci-
sion making in a democracy take both pluralistic and elitist perspectives. The pluralistic
perspective argues that debates, bargains, and compromises determine the allocation of
resources and the enactment of laws and policies. Further, although there are many differ-
ent interests and groups in a society, some more influential than others, no one group
dominates. In contrast, the elitist or class perspective argues that only a limited number of
persons (e.g., the rich or special-interest groups) have any real influence in the political
process. The playing field is not level, so politics results in preferential treatment for the
most influential individuals and discrimination against those with little or no influence
or power.
These two contrasting perspectives are important for our understanding of the police.
From the pluralist perspective, police can be seen as a benign institution that helps
CHAPTER 1 Police in a Democracy 7

implement laws and policies that result from an honest and fair political contest. From the
elitist perspective, police are usually characterized as the “iron fist” that helps protect
the powerful and repress the rest of society. Policing is a more noble enterprise within the
pluralist framework than within the elitist framework. From either perspective, however,
the police wield power and thus deserve careful attention.
Police and Rule of Law
Democracies are concerned about the rights and freedoms to be given to individuals and
about the limits to be placed on the government’s use of police power. This concern is usu-
ally addressed by creating a constitution. Constitutions may be written or unwritten, but
they serve the same basic purpose: to establish the nature and character of government by
identifying the basic principles underlying that government. The Constitution of the
United States identifies the functions of government and specifies in its first 10 amend-
ments (the Bill of Rights) the most important rights of individuals relative to the
government.
The United States has a constitutional democracy in which the exercise of power is
based on the rule of law. Ideally, laws created through a democratic process are more rea-
sonable and more likely to be accepted by citizens than laws created by only a few influen-
tial persons. And although democratic government does not always work in this fashion,
ours has evolved so that the rule of law in practice has gradually become less tyrannical
and more representative of the concerns of all citizens. One of the reasons that the rule of
law is considered necessary is that proponents of democracy assume that individuals in
power will be inclined to abuse their power unless they are controlled by a constitution,
democratically developed laws, and the structure or organization of government.
Police accountability to the rule of law is an important tradition in democratic societies.
According to Reith (1938, 188), the basis for democratic policing “is to be found in rational
and humane laws.” The significance of the rule of law to democracy and the police is fur-
ther described in a Royal Commission Report on the British police:

Liberty does not depend, and never has depended, upon any particular form of police
organization. It depends upon the supremacy of . . . the rule of law. The proper criterion
[to determine if a police state exists] is whether the police are answerable to the law and
ultimately, to a democratically elected [government]. In the countries to which the
term police state is applied . . ., police power is controlled by a [totalitarian] govern-
ment [that] acknowledges no accountability to democratically elected (representa-
tives), and the citizens cannot rely on the [law] to protect them. (Royal Commission on
the Police 1962, 45)

There are a number of ways to categorize laws; for example, laws may be civil or crimi-
nal and substantive or procedural (legal issues are discussed further in Chapter 3). Civil
laws are concerned with relationships between individuals (e.g., contracts, business trans-
actions, family relations); criminal laws are concerned with the relationship between the
individual and the government. Those behaviors that pose a threat to public safety and
order (e.g., operating a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license, theft, rape, murder)
are considered crimes. The prosecution of a crime is brought in the name of the people as
represented by government officials (e.g., a prosecuting attorney). Although police must be
familiar with both civil and criminal law, their primary concern is with criminal law.
In the realm of criminal law, substantive laws are those that identify behavior, either
required or prohibited, and the punishments for failure to observe these laws. For example,
8 Part I Policing Foundations

driving under the influence of alcohol is prohibited, and such behavior may be punished
by a fine or imprisonment or both, along with suspension of the privilege to drive a motor
vehicle. Procedural laws govern how the police go about enforcing substantive laws. Pro-
cedural laws specify the level of evidence required to justify an arrest, for example, and
whether the police can arrest based on their own authority or must first obtain a warrant.
Important frames of reference for procedural criminal laws are the Bill of Rights (the
first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution; see Table 1.1) and case law (the written
rulings of state and federal appellate courts), which more specifically define when and
how each procedure is to be used. When enforcing substantive laws, officers are supposed
to follow procedural laws, which exist to restrict the power of government and to reduce
the possibility that police will abuse the power they have been given. The law not only
provides a framework for police activity and behavior but also is intended to ensure that
the police have good reason (e.g., “reasonable suspicion” or “probable cause”) to intrude
into the lives of citizens. Procedural laws also balance what would otherwise be an un-
equal relationship between government and the individual because the government usu-
ally has more resources, and often more public support, than a person suspected of
committing a crime.
Even when the police have legal authority, however, they do not always enforce the law
because of limited resources, public expectations, organizational priorities, and officer pref-
erences. Rather, both the organization and the officer exercise discretion; that is, they make

TABLE 1.1 Selected Amendments to the U.S. Constitution


Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants
shall be issued but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and
­particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
Fifth Amendment
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless
on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or
naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life
or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private
property be taken for public use without just compensation.
Sixth Amendment
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public
trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been
committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the
­witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Eighth Amendment
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishments inflicted.
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you go to purchase yourself, such exorbitant prices will be
demanded, that you will either come away without the article you
need, or have the unpleasant reflection afterward that you have been
cheated worse than if you had sent your servant and allowed him to
levy his blackmail.
As I had anticipated, the rajah was not loath to show me his
treasures. They were merely half a dozen glass rings, evidently
made by cutting off a piece of a glass rod nine or ten inches long,
and half an inch in diameter. This piece, having been heated, was
bent into a ring and the two ends united by fusion. Instead of
expressing surprise and delight, as all who were looking on seemed
to expect, I coolly began explaining to the rajah what they were and
how they were made. A look of surprise and incredulity appeared on
the faces of all, and the rajah at once, in a most solemn manner,
averred that so far from their being the work of man, they had been
taken out of the heads of snakes and wild boars! Despite the
dignified bearing the occasion was supposed to demand, I could not
refrain from a smile as I remarked that I had seen many heads of
those animals myself, but never before had I heard that they carried
such circular jewels in their brains. “Have you ever seen one of these
taken out yourself?” I asked. “Oh, no! They come from Tana Ceram
(the land or continent of Ceram).” All who were listening, now fearing
that their rajah might be worsted in the discussion, and being ready
on every occasion to show that they were loyal subjects, abruptly
ended the argument by the unqualified assertion that every thing
was exactly as the rajah had said; and, as I was his guest, I changed
the conversation to another topic. When I returned to the city of
Amboina, I looked at once in the “Rariteit Kamer,” confident that
Rumphius would explain this remarkable and, as I afterward found,
common belief; for, though the rajah probably did not believe what
he said, his credulous subjects doubtless never thought before of
calling in question such a generally-accepted notion; such a query
would, in their view, have indicated a weak instead of an inquiring
mind. This is one of the obstacles in the way of advancement among
these people. Rumphius says that many rings were brought by the
Portuguese and sold to the natives, who prize them very highly. This
accounted for their origin; and afterward, when I came to travel over
the empire of China, and noticed how that people value similar rings
of jade (nephrite), and remembered that the coast of Ceram,
opposite Assilulu, was once frequented by the people of that empire,
who came to purchase cloves and nutmegs, it occurred to me that
possibly it was from them that the Amboinese had learned to place
so high a value on such simple objects, and had obtained their first
specimens. Java is perhaps the only island in the archipelago where
such ornaments could have been made by the natives, but I do not
find that they are especially prized there, or that they have been dug
up with other relics of previous ages.
Off this coast lie three islands, the Three Brothers, and on their
shores the natives found a number of rare shells. In the streets of the
village considerable quantities of cloves that had been gathered on
the neighboring hill-sides were exposed to the sun on mats between
the frequent showers, but the culture of that spice has been so
neglected of late years, that this was the only place where I saw the
fruit in all the Moluccas. The clove-tree (Carophyllus aromaticus)
belongs to the order of myrtles, which also includes the
pomegranate, the guava, and the rose-apple. The trunk of the full-
grown tree is from eight to twelve inches in diameter, and
occasionally much more. Its topmost branches are usually forty or
fifty feet from the ground, though I have seen a tree not larger than a
cherry-tree fully loaded with fruit. It was originally confined to the five
islands off the west coast of Gilolo, which then comprised the whole
group known as “the Moluccas,” a name that has since been
extended to Buru, Amboina, and the other islands off the south coast
of Ceram, where the clove has been introduced and cultivated within
a comparatively late period. On those five islands it begins to bear in
its seventh or eighth year, and sometimes continues to yield until it
has reached an age of nearly one hundred and fifty years; the trees,
therefore, are of very different sizes. Here at Amboina it is not
expected to bear fruit before its twelfth or fifteenth year, and to cease
yielding when it is seventy-five years old. Its limited distribution has
always attracted attention, and Rumphius, who describes it as “the
most beautiful, the most elegant, and the most precious of all known
trees,” remarks: “Hence it appears that the Great Disposer of things
in His wisdom, allotting His gifts to the several regions of the world,
placed cloves in the kingdom of the Moluccas, beyond which, by no
human industry, can they be propagated or perfectly cultivated.” In
the last observation, however, he was mistaken, for since his time it
has been successfully introduced into the island of Penang, in the
Strait of Malacca, and Sumatra, Bourbon, Zanzibar, and the coast of
Guiana and the West India Islands. The clove is the flower-bud, and
grows in clusters at the ends of the twigs. The annual yield of a good
tree is about four pounds and a half, and the yearly crop on
Amboina, Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut, the only islands where
the tree is now cultivated, is 350,000 Amsterdam pounds.[29] It is,
however, extremely variable and uncertain—for example, in 1846 it
was 869,727 Amsterdam pounds, but in 1849 it was only 89,923, or
little more than one-tenth of what it was three years before. Pigafetta
informs us that, when the Spanish first came to the Moluccas, there
were no restrictions on the culture or sale of the clove. The annual
crop at that time, 1521, according to the same authority, reached the
enormous quantity of 6,000 bahars, 3,540,000 pounds of
“uncleaned,” and 4,000 bahars, 2,360,000 pounds of “cleaned”
cloves, about seventeen times the quantity obtained at the present
time. Though this statement at first appears incredible, it is
strengthened by the fact that the two ships of Magellan’s fleet that
reached Tidore, one of the Spice Islands, were filled with cloves
during a stay of only twenty-four days. When the buds are young
they are nearly white, afterward they change to a light green, and
finally to a bright red, when they must at once be gathered, which is
done by picking them by hand, or beating them off with bamboos on
to cloths spread beneath the trees. They are then simply dried in the
sun, and are ready for the market. In drying, their color is changed
from red to black, the condition in which we see them. They are
gathered twice a year, at about this time, in June, and again in the
last of December. The leaves, bark, and young twigs also have some
peculiar aroma, and at Zanzibar the stems of the buds are also
gathered and find a ready sale. The favorite locations of this tree are
the high hill-sides, and it is said that it does not thrive well on low
lands, where the loam is fine and heavy. The soil best adapted to it
appears to be a loose, sandy loam. In its original habitat it grows
chiefly on volcanic soil, but in Amboina and the other islands, where
it is now cultivated, it has been found to flourish well on loams
formed by the disintegration of recent sandstone and secondary
rocks. The native name for this fruit is chenki, perhaps a corruption
of the Chinese tkeng-ki, “odoriferous nails.”[30] The Dutch name for
clove is kruid-nagel, “herb-nail,” and for the trees nagelen-boomen,
“nail-trees.” Our own name clove comes from the Spanish clavo
(Latin clavus), a nail, which has also been given them on account of
the similarity of these buds to nails.
Although cloves form a favorite condiment among all nations, the
natives of these islands where they grow never eat them in any form,
and we have no reason to suppose they ever did. The only purpose
for which the Amboinese use them, so far as I am aware, is to
prepare neat models of their praus and bamboo huts, by running
small wire through the buds before they are dried. The Dutch
purchase and send to Europe so many of these models, that almost
every ethnological museum contains some specimens of this skilful
workmanship. The clove probably came into use originally by
accident, and I believe the first people who fancied its rich aroma,
and warm, pungent taste, were the Chinese. The similarity of the
native name to that of the Chinese, and its marked difference,
according to De Cauto, from that of the Brahmins or Hindus, lends
probability to this view. When the Portuguese first came to these
islands, the Chinese, Arabs, Malays, Javanese, and Macassars,
were all found here trading in this article. Of the two former nations,
the Chinese were probably the first to reach this region, though the
Arabs sailed up the China Sea and carried on a large trade with the
Chinese at Canpu, a port in Hangchau Bay, south of the present city
of Shanghai, in the thirteenth century, or fully two hundred years
before the Portuguese and Spaniards arrived in these seas.
The first notice of cloves in Europe occurs in a law passed during
the reign of Aurelian the First, between a. d. 175 and 180, where
they are mentioned as forming an article of commerce from India to
Alexandria; for the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea formed at that
time the chief highway of Eastern trade. From these islands the
cloves were first taken by the Malays and Javanese to the peninsula
of Malacca, where they passed into the hands of the Telingas or
Klings, who carried them to Calicut, the old Capital of Malabar.
Thence they were transported to the western shores of India and
shipped across the Arabian Sea, and up the Gulf of Aden and the
Red Sea to Cairo. These frequent transfers so increased the original
price, that in England, before the discovery of the Cape of Good
Hope, thirty shillings were paid for them per pound, or one hundred
and sixty-eight pounds sterling per hundred-weight, which was three
hundred and sixty times their original price. It was to make this
immense profit that the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch, and
the English, were all so anxious to find a passage to the East by sea,
and why, when these islands had been discovered, each strove to
monopolize the trade itself, and all carried on such a persistent and
piratical warfare for many years. So long as cloves were not
cultivated elsewhere, and there was no competition in the European
markets, the Dutch Government made a handsome profit by means
of its monopoly; but when they were raised in other places, the
consumption of such a luxury not increasing with the supply, the
previous high price began at once to decline, and for many years the
income of the government in these islands has not been equal to its
expenses in the same region. Some have supposed that a further
reduction in the price would be followed with a corresponding greater
demand, until its consumption would become as general and as
large as that of pepper; but this view is opposed by the common
decision of mankind—that pepper is a necessary article of food, and
that the clove is only a luxury. If no attempt had been made to keep
up the price of this commodity to such a high figure in the European
markets, there would have been a less incentive to other nations to
introduce it into their own colonies, and thus the market would not
have been overstocked so soon, and the price would not have fallen
so low as to make the Spice Islands a source of loss instead of
profit, except within a recent date.
All the rajahs I met were strict Mohammedans, and, improving the
privileges of their sect, had more than one wife. Soon after arriving at
each rajah’s house, I was invariably asked whether or not I was
married, and for a long time I could not imagine why I was so closely
quizzed, until the proverbial jealousy of these people occurred to me.
Each wished to know how strict a watch he was to keep over his
fascinating harem; and as I was obliged to answer all such queries in
the negative, I never even saw one of their wives. At meals only the
rajah and myself sat at the table; and as I had two servants, and
each of these princes nearly a score, we were always well served,
considering our fare. Two articles never failed to appear—chickens
and rice—and to these fish was usually added; and for luncheon and
dessert always the richest bananas. One kind, the pisang Ambon, or
“Amboina banana,” is very common in that region, but the one I soon
learned to prefer, and the one that my servants were always ordered
to procure if possible, wherever we chanced to halt, was the pisang
mas, or “golden banana,” a small variety, with a peculiarly rich,
honey-like flavor, and a bright golden skin when it is fully ripe. This
rajah, I noticed, was particular to seat me at the table so that I could
only look out at the front door. The first query he proposed at dinner
was, how we are accustomed to eat in our land, adding that, after all,
no style suited him so well as dispensing with knives and forks
altogether, and adopting the simpler and more natural mode of using
one’s fingers—a style so common, that each rajah usually keeps a
supply of finger-bowls, and frequently these are worth more than all
the crockery and other glassware on the table beside. While I was
most zealously explaining in reply the superiority of our custom,
there arose a suppressed giggle behind me; the secret was out—the
rajah’s wives had been allowed to leave their close prison and look
at me, while I was so placed that I could not, without the greatest
rudeness, turn round so as to steal a glance at them. But as this
noise was evidently not a part of the proposed programme, I
repressed my curiosity, and continued my description. One topic
especially they never seemed weary of hearing about, and that was
my experience as a soldier. There was something strangely
fascinating to their rude imaginations in the scenes of blood through
which I have had to pass. At first I had some difficulty in translating
my stories into good Malay, but one of my servants fortunately spoke
a little Dutch, and supplied me with a word or sentence, as the case
demanded.
From Assilulu I set off, during a heavy rain-storm, over a
neighboring mountain for the southwest shore, and after a long walk
over the rocks, sand, and shingle, we reached Lariki, where there
was once a fort with a garrison, but now the ruins of the fort, and a
few old, rusty guns are all that remain; and the only official stationed
there is an opziener or “overseer.” In two days, at that place, I so
increased my collection, that I had to hire eight coolies to transport it,
each carrying two baskets—one on either end of a pole about four
feet long. The baskets are made of an open framework of bamboo,
covered inside with palm-leaves, and are therefore very light and
durable. The most common shell there is the little cypræa caput-
serpentis, or “serpent’s-head cowry,” which has a close
resemblance, both in form and color, to the head of a snake.
From Lariki the opziener accompanied me to the neighboring
kampong of Wakasihu. Our narrow footpath wound along the side of
a rugged, projecting crag, and the view from the outer point was very
imposing. The stormy monsoon was at its height. The heavy swell
rolling in from the open ocean broke and flung its white spray and
clotted foam far and wide over the black rocks left bare by the ebbing
tide. Thick clouds, heavily freighted with rain, were driven by the
strong wind against the rugged coast and adjoining mountains. The
cocoa-nut palms that grew just above high-water level, and leaned
over toward the sea, twisted and shook their plumy crests in a
continual strife with the angry storm, and above them the branches
of great evergreens moaned and piped as they lashed to and fro in
the fitful gusts of the tempests.
At Wakasihu the old white-bearded rajah, hearing of our approach,
came out to welcome us. The opziener explained to him the object of
my coming, and immediately he ordered a large tifa, that hung under
an adjoining shed, to be beaten, as a warning to his people that their
rajah required them all to assemble at once before his house. The
news quickly spread that a foreigner had come to purchase shells,
and the old men, young men, women, and children all came with the
treasures that had been accumulating for months, and even years, in
their miserable dwellings. Here many perfect specimens of the richly-
colored Cassis flammea appeared, and also that strangely-marked
shell, the Cypræa mappa, or “map cowry,” so named from the
irregular light-colored line over its back where the two edges of the
mantle meet when the animal is fully expanded. They had crawled
into the bubus that had been sunk for fish at a depth of several
fathoms.
The trading was carried on only in Malay, but when I offered a
price, which was higher or lower than they had expected, they
frequently consulted with each other in their own peculiar dialect or
bahasa. This the opziener, who was a native of the city of Amboina,
was as totally unable to understand as I. He also assured me that
even the natives at Lariki, from which we had walked in half an hour,
could only understand an occasional word of the bahasa of this
village, and that the people of neither village could understand a
word of the bahasa of Assilulu, two or three hours’ walk beyond
Lariki. In fact, as a rule, every community that is under one rajah,
and this is generally but one village, has its own peculiar dialect,
which is so different from the dialects of every adjoining village, that
all are obliged to learn Malay in order to carry on any trade or hold
any communication with their nearest neighbors. The bahasa is
never a written language, and appears to be constantly changing,
for, at the city of Amboina, the natives have completely lost their
dialect since the foreigners settled among them, and now can only
speak with each other in Malay. The great diversity in the native
dialects, and the general adoption of Malay, existed at least as early
as when the Spaniards first navigated these waters, for De Barros
says: “Two facts give reason to believe that the inhabitants of these
islands consist of various and diverse nations. The first is the
inconstancy, hatred, and suspicion with which they watch each other;
and the second, the great variety of their languages; for it is not the
same with them and the Bisayans (the inhabitants of Bisaya, one of
the Philippines), where one language prevails with all. The variety,
on the contrary, is so great that no two places understand each
other’s tongue. Even the pronunciation differs widely, for some form
their words in the throat, others at the point of the tongue, others
between the teeth, and others in the palate. If there be any tongue
through which they can understand each other, it is the Malay of
Malacca, to which the nobles” (rajahs and capalas) “have lately
addicted themselves since the Moors” (Arabs) “have resorted to
them for the clove.” The Malays and Javanese probably visited these
regions long before the Arabs; and they, and not the Arabs, were the
people who first taught these natives the Malay language.
From Wakasihu I continued during a violent rain-storm along the
south coast to Laha at the mouth of the bay of Amboina, determined
to cross the bay and reach home that night, if possible. There were a
number of villages along the route, and at each I had to procure a
new relay of coolies. This caused much delay, but a foreigner soon
learns that he must have an inexhaustible stock of patience to draw
on at any unexpected moment if he is going to deal with these
people. At one village they all agreed that a neighboring stream,
which we could not avoid crossing, had become so swollen by the
heavy rains, that it was absolutely impassable; but I simply ordered
them to quietly follow me, and where I could not lead the way they
might turn back. However, when we came to its banks, we found
before us a deep, foaming torrent, far more uninviting and dangerous
than I had anticipated, yet by following up its course for half a mile, I
came to a place where I made my way to the opposite bank; but
here I found myself hemmed in by a precipitous cliff, and there could
be nothing done except to beat an inglorious retreat. The natives
meantime had been trying the stream farther down, and had found a
ford where the strong current was only waist-deep, and here we
safely gained the opposite bank. After this came another stream
even more difficult to cross, and after that, still a third. Each time I
almost expected that the coolies, who were carrying over my shells,
would be swept away, but they were all so lightly clad that they
succeeded in maintaining their footing, even where the current was
perfectly boiling. The streams are changed into rapid torrents in a
few hours in these islands, where the water seems to come down
from the sky in broad sheets whenever it rains. There are few
bridges, and the difficulty of crossing the small rivers is one of the
chief obstacles in travelling here during the rainy season. However,
as a compensation, there is no sultry, scorching sun. Near the
beaches where the streams flow out to the sea, they all widen into
deep, oblong pools, which are made very narrow at high-water level
by the quantities of sand thrown up by the surf. Near the low-water
level they again become broad and shallow, and during ebb-tide the
best place to cross them is on the ocean shore as far down as one
can go and avoid the danger of being swept away by the heavy surf.
It was nearly night when we reached Laha; we were all thoroughly
drenched, and had eaten nothing since morning except some half-
ripe bananas. The storm was unabated, but the rajah said it was
possible to cross the bay against the wind and waves, and three
men were detailed to paddle us six miles to the city. Our boat was a
common leper-leper, that is, a canoe made from the trunk of a large
tree, with pieces of plank placed on the sides to raise them to the
proper height. Both ends are sharp, and curve upward. About four
feet from the bow a pole is laid across, and another the same
distance from the stern. These project outward from the side of the
boat six or eight feet, and to them is fastened a bamboo, the whole
forming what is known as an “outrigger.” The canoes themselves are
so narrow, that without these external supports they would be even
more crank than the birch-bark canoes of our red Indians. When we
launched our leper-leper, and placed on board our cargo of shells,
and got in ourselves, her sides were only about four inches out of
water, but I could not procure a larger boat, so we started. It soon
became so dark that all we could discern on the neighboring shores
were large fires which the natives had made from place to place to
lure the fish by night into their weirs. The wind also increased, and
the waves rose higher and began to sparkle brightly, and
occasionally a strong gust would seem to change the whole surface
of the sea into a sheet of fire. For a time my boatmen felt strong, and
encouraged each other with a wild shouting like an Indian warwhoop,
and in this way we had made more than a mile from the shore, when
the wind became much heavier, and occasionally an ugly wave
broke over us. My men still continued to paddle on until we found
that we were scarcely holding our own against the storm. Then they
became discouraged and proposed to go back, but turning round
such a long, narrow boat in the midst of a rough sea was by no
means an easy matter. The man forward stopped to rest, and just
then a heavy flaw struck the front part of the boat, whirled it round in
an instant, and away we flew off before the tempest like a race-
horse. It had now become so dark and thick that, though the natives
knew every foot of the shore, they could not tell where to steer, and it
was only by paddling with all their might that we escaped running
into a mass of foaming breakers. Finally we once more reached the
shore; the rajah had some rice and fish cooked, and at midnight I
took my second meal that day. My bedroom was so open that the
wind whistled in on every side and so completely chilled me that I
expected to find myself burning with fever the next day, but the
excitement counteracted the cold, and I arrived again at Amboina
safe and well. After such an excursion several days were passed
writing labels, one of which I placed in each individual shell, a
wearying and almost an endless task, but the thought continually
occurred to me that, if I should not be permitted to return to my
native land, such authentic labels in my own handwriting would
enable any one into whose hands my collection might fall to fully
accomplish the object of my long journey.
July 23d.—This morning, at a quarter-past four, I was suddenly
awaked by some cause which, for the moment, I could not
understand, but immediately there began a low, heavy rumbling
down deep in the earth. It was not a roar, but such a rattling or quick
succession of reports as is made when a number of heavily-laden
coaches are rapidly driven down a steep street paved with round
cobble-stones. At the next instant it seemed as if some huge giant
had seized my bed, and had pushed it from him and then pulled it
toward him with the greatest violence. The gentleman and lady with
whom I was residing shouted out to me: “Run out of the house! run
for your life! There is a dreadful earthquake!”
Back of the main house was the dining-room, surrounded by a low
wall, and covered with a light roof. This was our place of refuge. The
gentleman then explained to me that the shock which had just
occurred was the second, and a very severe one, and the first, which
was light, was what had so suddenly aroused me from a deep sleep.
Of course, no one of us knew but another still heavier might come at
the next instant and lay all the buildings near us in a mass of ruins, if
indeed the earth should not open and swallow us all alive. The time
that elapsed between hearing the rumbling noise and feeling the
shock itself was about five seconds. At this time of the year, in the
middle of a monsoon, the wind blows constantly day and night; but
after this earthquake there was not the slightest perceptible motion in
the air. The tree-toads stopped their steady piping, and the nocturnal
insects all ceased their shrill music. It was so absolutely quiet that it
seemed as if all nature was waiting in dread anticipation of some
coming catastrophe. Such an unnatural stillness was certainly more
painful than the howling of the most violent tempest or the roar of the
heaviest thunder. Meantime, lights sprang up here and there in the
neighboring houses, and all the doors were thrown open, that at the
slightest warning everybody might run into the street. The strange
words of the Chinese, Malays, and Arabs, sounded yet stranger in
the dark, still night, as each called in a subdued but most earnest
tone to his or her relatives. The utter helplessness which every one
feels at such a time, where even the solid earth groans and trembles
beneath his feet, makes the solicitude most keenly painful. It was
half an hour—and that half hour seemed an age—before the wind
began to blow as before. Then the nocturnal animals, one after
another, slowly resumed their nightly cries, and our alarm gradually
subsided as the dawn appeared, and once more gave promise of
approaching day. I had long been anxious to witness an earthquake;
but since that dreadful night there is something in the very sound of
the word that makes me almost shudder. There is usually at least
one earthquake—that is, one series of shocks—at Amboina every
year, and when eight or ten months have passed without one, a very
heavy shock is always expected.
On the 17th of February, 1674, according to Valentyn, Amboina
suffered from a heavy earthquake, and Mount Ateti, or Wawanu, on
Hitu, west of the village of Zyt, poured out a great quantity of hot
mud, which flowed down to the sea. In 1822 Dr. S. Müller visited it
and found a considerable quantity of sublimed sulphur, and some
sulphurous acid gas rising from it. Again, in 1815, when the volcano
of Tomboro, or Sumbawa, was suffering its terrible eruption, an
earthquake was felt at several places on this island. Many people
described to me a series of shocks of great violence that began on
the 1st of November, 1835, and continued three weeks. The whole
population of the city were obliged to leave their houses and live for
all that time in tents and bamboo huts in the large common back of
the forts. Up to that date Amboina had been a remarkably healthy
place, but immediately afterward a gastric-bilious fever broke out and
continued until March, 1845. On the 20th of July of that year another
heavy earthquake was experienced, and this disease at once began
again, but had somewhat subsided, when, on the 18th and 20th of
March, 1850, another severe shock occurred, and again for the third
time it commenced anew. This time both the governor and the
assistant resident died. At present Amboina is one of the healthiest
islands in these seas. On the 4th and 5th of November, 1699, a
series of earthquakes occurred among the mountains where the river
that flows through Batavia takes its rise. During these shocks a land-
slide occurred, and the water was so filled with mud that the canals
and ramifications of the river in the city were silted up, and their
currents completely stopped. The immediate consequence was, a
large proportion of the population of that city fell victims to a fever
engendered by the great quantities of stagnant water. No similar
cause could have operated here on the island of Amboina. As the
quantity of rain, the strength and direction of the wind, and all other
meteorological phenomena, appear to have been the same as in
other years, it is evident that the disease was connected in some
way with the earthquakes, and the view has been advanced that it
was caused by quantities of poisonous gases which are supposed to
have risen out of the earth during the violent shocks.
Many fine shells were now brought me from Tulahu, a kampong on
the northeast coast of Hitu, so I determined to go on my next
excursion in that direction. Two miles up the bay from the city of
Amboina a tongue of land projects out from either shore, until a
passage only five hundred yards wide is left between them. Within
this passage the sea again expands into a bay about three miles
long and a mile and a half wide. The depth of the water in the
passage is sufficient for the largest ships, yet inside it is nowhere
more than twenty or twenty-five fathoms. A large navy could anchor
here, and be perfectly sheltered from all winds and seas; but vessels
rarely or never enter it, as the road off the city is so far from the
mouth of the bay that it is very seldom any considerable swell rolls in
from the ocean, and moreover, the shores of this bay are considered
extremely unhealthy on account of fevers, while sickness of that kind
is very rare at the outer anchorage. On the eastern or Laitimur side
of the bay there are several kampongs upon the low land along the
shore. Back from the low land, on the Hitu side, there is a gradual
ascent to mountains a mile or two back. One of them, Salhutu, rises
twelve hundred metres above the sea, and is the highest peak on
the island. In the shallow water around the head of the bay grow
many mangrove-trees (Rhizophoræ). A low isthmus of sand and
alluvium, only some thirteen hundred yards broad, and but a few feet
above high-water level, connects Laitimur with Hitu. Through this a
canal was cut in 1827 to the large bay of Baguala, in order that the
praus bound from Ceram to Amboina might avoid the long route
round the dangerous shores of Laitimur; but in twelve years this
passage became so filled up with sand as to be impassable, except
for small boats, and now they can only go to and fro during high tide,
and thus whatever there is to be transported must be carried on the
backs of coolies. It is very painful to see such valuable
improvements neglected and becoming useless, for it shows that the
whole tendency in this region, instead of being toward progress, is
only toward decay. Crossing this isthmus, we continued along the
sandy shores on the north side of Baguala Bay, for this is the only
highway between the city of Amboina and the populous islands of
Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut, to the east. Occasionally the path
passed over a projecting point, but when it is low water the natives
usually prefer to follow along the shore, just as their fathers did for
centuries before them, although it is frequently twice as far as by the
road. In an hour and a half we came to Suli, a pretty Christian
kampong. The road then turned to the north and led us for two or
three miles over low hills of coral rock, covered with a thin layer of
red soil, to Tulahu, a village on the north coast, which contains a
population of about fifteen hundred, and is the largest on the island.
Near its centre is a mosque, for the whole community is composed
of Mohammedans. As I passed up the main street on my way to the
house of the rajah, scores of boys and men kept gathering and
following, to learn from my servants who this strange foreigner that
headed the procession could be, and what was the object of his
coming. The rajah had been notified by the Resident of my proposed
visit, and received me with a profound “salaam.” In the village was a
ruma négri, or “house belonging to the village.” It had been erected
by the villagers, in accordance with orders from the Dutch
Government, for the accommodation of all officials and foreigners
passing that way. It was built in the usual style of foreign houses in
the East, with a broad veranda in front, an admirable place to trade
with the people. A comfortable bedroom was fitted up for me, but I
dined with the rajah. I was always careful to take a good supply of
tea and sugar on such excursions, and my servants purchased
chickens, fish, and whatever else was to be procured; in short, I
bought all the food, and the rajah helped me eat it, so that I fulfilled
to the letter the order of the governor-general that I should prove “no
burden to the native people;” but, on the contrary, as I spent many
guilders for shells in each village, my visits, in their eyes, were
special blessings. Again and again mothers would come with their
children and complain most bitterly that they had so little food and
clothing, and beg me to take the shells they had brought, and name
my own price. The rajah at first could hardly believe I should collect
many shells in his village, but I asked him to beat the tifa for his
capalas, literally “head men,” but really a higher class of servants,
whose duty it is to convey to the people the rajah’s commands, and
see them duly enforced. The capalas were ordered to summon all
those who probably had shells in their houses, that I might invite
them to trade. Meantime supper was prepared. The first object on
the table that attracted my attention was an Octopus, or “inkfish,” an
animal much like the squid of our own shores, which fishermen
sometimes use for bait, and which whalers know is a favorite morsel
for blackfish; but I never heard of men feasting on it before. After this
questionable dish and a chicken were disposed of, the fried fruit of
the Artocarpus incisa, or “bread-fruit tree,” was placed on the table.
After supper I walked through all the principal streets of the village,
supported on either side by a capala, who persistently drove all the
natives out of the street before us, and forced them to take their
proper place behind us. To give the trade more éclat, I took a good
quantity of small copper coins and distributed them freely among the
small children as I passed along. The result of this manœuvre was
most magical; everybody was anxious to make my acquaintance and
sell me shells. Even the good Mohammedan priest laid aside his
feelings of indifference toward the Christian stranger, and invited me
under his roof. He also intimated that he could favor me with a few
species, but, as his prices were five times as high as those of the
common people, I neglected to make a selection from his treasures.
Each evening that I was in this village the rajah insisted on my
passing hour after hour on his veranda, describing to him the foreign
countries he could name. Like many other natives who would like to
be free from all European rule, it afforded him great comfort to hear
that Tana Ollanda (Holland) was much smaller in area than France
or England. When I came to tell him that Tana America was a still
greater country, he listened politely, but a half-incredulous smile
revealed his belief that I only spoke of it in such an enthusiastic
manner because I was an American; yet when I added, that however
much other nations might wish to possess these beautiful islands,
America would never have such a desire, his knowledge of
geography seemed to have become complete at once, and he
explained to all who were listening that Tana America was admitted
by all to be the largest and the most powerful of all nations. He also
had an almost endless series of questions to ask about the
sovereigns of the lands I had described, and, like a good
Mohammedan, expressed his confidence that I should speak well of
the Sultan of Turkey, whom he appeared to regard as the next in
authority to the Prophet himself.
The next day I went westward to Waai, where I obtained many
specimens of the great Trochus marmoratus, which lives in
abundance a little farther toward the northwestern end of the island,
but can only be procured alive during the opposite monsoon. Its
beautifully marbled, sea-green surface, and bright, pearly interior
have always made it a favorite ornament for the parlor in every land.
Many, wishing to improve on Nature, remove the green outer layers
either by hydrochloric or nitric acid, so as to give the exterior also a
bright nacreous iridescence. Hundreds of the heavy opercula of
these animals are found on the neighboring shores, for Nature has
provided each with this thick door, which, after it has withdrawn itself
into the shell, it can close behind it, and thus be free from all harm.
On my return I found my house besieged with more than two
hundred of both sexes and of every age, from infancy to second
childhood. Each had a lot of shells to sell, and therefore the prices
were very low; but I was careful to pay them more than they could
earn in any other way in the same time. The women and children on
all these islands are accustomed to gather mollusks at every low tide
for food, and whenever any particularly rare or beautiful shell is
found, it is always saved; and it was for this reason that I was always
confident that I could obtain some valuable specimens in every
village. Here I secured one shell, the Strombus latissimus, or “thick-
lipped strombus,” that I had long been hoping to see. It lives in the
deep water between these shores and the opposite coast of Ceram,
and I could not hear that it is found in any other locality. Many
species of long “spindle-shells” (Fusi) are found here—some nearly
smooth and some richly ornamented with tubercles.
I had now been on the island four weeks, and it was time for the
monthly mail to arrive, bringing me letters from home. This exciting
thought caused me to forget even my passion for shells, and,
promising the natives I would come again and purchase all the
specimens they could collect, I returned to the city of Amboina.
CHAPTER VI.
THE ULIASSERS AND CERAM.

The arrival of the mail here, at Amboina, causes a general


rejoicing. Indeed, it is the only thing there is to break the dull
monotony of a residence in this enervating climate, unless, as
happened this month, there is an earthquake, which affords a grand
opportunity for the old residents to describe to all newcomers the
fearful shocks they have experienced, and this they invariably do
with that peculiar kind of semi-boasting with which a veteran fights
over his battles in the presence of raw recruits. The last earthquake,
which everybody witnessed, is referred to very much as we at home
speak of some violent gale that has swept along the coast. Those
who would be weather-wise in our land here discuss the various
directions from which the different shocks came—upon which there
seems a considerable variance of opinion, but I notice that generally
each company agrees with the highest dignitary present. This was a
fortunate mail for me. It brought me letters from home, and many
American papers from our consul at Batavia, who never failed to
send me the latest news all the time I was in any part of the
archipelago. Before the next mail my letters were read and re-read.
The pages of the Boston papers seemed like the faces of familiar
friends, and it was difficult not to peruse the advertisements, column
by column, before I could lay them aside. I, in turn, was able to write
my friends that already I possessed a full series of nearly all the
species of shells I had come to seek.
East of Amboina lie three islands, sometimes called the
“Uliassers.” The first and nearest to Amboina is Haruku (in Dutch
Haroekoe); it is also known to the natives as Oma, or Buwang-bessi,
“Ejecting-iron.” The second is Saparua (in Dutch Saparoea); but
according to Mr. Crawfurd it should be Sapurwa, or Sapurba, from
the native numeral Sa standing as an article, and the Sanscrit,
purwa, “source,” a name probably given it by the Malay and
Javanese traders, who came here to buy cloves long before the
Portuguese reached such a remote region, and this is made more
probable by the name of the third island Nusalaut (in Dutch
Noesalaoet), which is compounded of the Javanese word nusa, “an
island,” and the Malay word laut, “the sea.” Nusalaut, therefore,
means Sea Island, and was evidently so named because it is
situated more nearly in the open sea. The Javanese word nusa,
which is applied, like the Malay word pulo, only to small islands,
enables us to trace out the early course of the Javanese traders. At
the southern end of Laitimur is a kampong named Nusaniva (niba),
“Fallen Island,” perhaps because some island, or a part of Amboina
itself, had sunk in that vicinity. Near the Banda group is Nusatelo
(better taluh), “Magic Island.” Saparua is also known to the natives
as Honimoa, and Liaser, whence probably the old name Uliassers,
for this is the most important of the three islands, and would naturally
give its name to the whole group. A merchant from Saparua, the
chief place on the island of that name, was then visiting Amboina,
and kindly invited me to accompany him when he should return—an
invitation I was most happy to accept, for Rumphius received many
shells from these islands, and I anticipated obtaining some species
alive, of which I possessed only shells. A heavy storm delayed us for
a week, a frequent occurrence during the southeast monsoon. From
Amboina we followed my former route to Tulahu, which we reached
at evening, the usual time for commencing a voyage in these seas at
this time of year, because the wind generally moderates after sunset,
and freshens again the next morning soon after sunrise. We
embarked at once on a large prau, manned by eighteen natives of
Saparua, and readily distinguished from the people of Amboina by
the peculiar custom of clipping the hair short all over the head,
except a narrow band along the forehead, which is allowed to hang
down over the face, and gives them a remarkably clownish
appearance. One of these men, who was coxswain or captain,
steered with a large paddle; two others were detailed to keep up the
continual, monotonous din, and which these people consider music,
and the others rowed. Our musical instruments were a huge tifa, that
gave out a dull, heavy sound, such as would be caused by beating a
hollow log, and not the sharp, quick rap of a drum, which, however
monotonous, still has something stirring and lively in it; and two
gongs, imported from China, and just harsh and discordant enough
to please the musical tympanums of the stupid Celestials. The tifa is
beat with a piece of wood of any shape held loosely in the right
hand, while the left hand raises the note by pressing against the
edge of the vibrating skin. There is, therefore, no such thing as a
long roll or a short roll, but one unvaried beating. The two gongs
were of different sizes, and were struck alternately, but this was so
slight a change that it only made the monotony more wearisome.
Each rower had a small wooden box, about a foot long, four inches
high, and six wide, where he carried the all-important betel-nut, siri,
lime, and tobacco. It also served as a chest for his extra clothing.

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