This paper focuses on two eras of policing in the US and highlights their strengths and weaknesses. The first and the second policing eras (the political and the reform policing periods respectively) are looked into with strengths and weaknesses of both brought forth. The article examines two issues that face policing today and their implications on social order. Terrorism and technological innovations are foregrounded as issues that affect current-day policing to a great extent. The paper proceeds to take a position on the discussion of where the policing service is headed in the next five years. The article attributes the unpredictable nature of policing activities in a few years to come to the amorphous nature of both terrorism and technologic advancement. The paper concludes by outlining the importance of public cooperation in enhancing effective policing that would overcome the challenges faced by the activity. The article expresses the belief that public participation boosts the success of policing activities hence meeting the set goals and objectives.
In the United States of America, policing has taken several shapes through different eras. The American policing activities have so far moved through three distinct periods including the political, the reform, and the community (Oliver, 2006). The first era of policing (the political period) in the US took root around the 1840s. The US witnessed the commissioning of the first publicly funded police forces with officers serving on a full-time basis during this period. The policing activities of this era experienced some strength because there existed a full public acceptance for the establishment of the entity (Oliver, 2006). The first era of policing was corrupt and brutal to the public. The observation foregrounds the major weakness of the political period of policing where politicians and wealthy individuals took advantage of the decentralized demand for policing services. The reform and the community eras followed the political age with the aim of correcting the wrongs that the foundational period of policing had caused.
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"Policing in the U.S.A. and its Possible Nature in the Future".
The reform period targeted a more professional oriented police service as opposed to one that was under the control of politicians (Oliver, 2006). The authorization of the police became increasingly dependent on the dictates of the law and not individuals. Also, the police service was stripped of all community service activities and made to focus on crime prevention (Oliver, 2006). The era was successful in its quest to reign in on corruption by adopting a centralized system of calling for policing services. It became difficult for officers to solicit bribes from citizens since the model discouraged direct interactions between officers and the public. Nonetheless, the arrangement further resulted in a detachment between the policing service and the citizens (Oliver, 2006). The disconnect is the reform period’s main disadvantage and contributed to rising cases of misunderstandings and conflicts between the entity and the citizens.
Some issues face law enforcement today and directly affect the social order. The first issue is terrorism. The Al Qaeda attack on 9th November 2011 in the US marked a new threat to security. The attacks were sporadic and unpredictable and aimed at changing the perception of safety while disrupting everyday life (Ransley and Mazerolle, 2009). The core mandate of policing is the provision of security to citizens of a given state. It is the mandate of the policing service to intervene whenever any issue arising in the community undermines its objectives. For example, the US government has had to focus more on the implementation of counter-terrorism measures after the 2011 terror attack. Among the measures that were implemented included Community-Oriented Policing (COP). According to Ransley and Mazerolle (2009), a majority of terrorists who successfully attacked different locations in the US had lived in the outskirts of major cities for several months. Community-oriented policing was a countermeasure that ensured that security services were brought closer to the citizens. In turn, any information exposing links to acts of terror would be intercepted in time to prevent loss of life and property.
Technology comes in second among issues that face law enforcement today. For the last seventy-five years, technology has been at the center of driving change in the nature and organization of policing activities. For example, only 5% of police patrol cars were computerized in 1990, but the figure rose to 40% in 2000 (White and Escobar, 2008). The use of technology has increasingly enhanced policing through the use of available information from databases to trace individuals thus improving accuracy and speed of policing operations (White and Escobar, 2008). As a result, the US government has invested in technology heavily to strengthen platforms for fighting crimes.
The future of policing in the next five years is already with us. Hitherto, there have been landmark technological innovations that have tremendously impacted on policing activities. However, this does not imply that there is not going to be further changes in policing, in fact, changes are most likely to occur just like in the past (Treverton, 2011). A closer look at most technologies that have shaped contemporary policing reveal that the innovations were meant to make life smooth and productive but not to enhance policing (Treverton, 2011). Therefore, the future of policing is not in technology innovations but in how policing structures adapt to them to meet their goals. The more the technological innovations continue to come into existence, the more the criminal environment widens in scope. There exists a complex interconnectedness between technology, law, and law enforcement. A change in one means that the remaining two have to readjust to maintain the social order. Thus, policing may be similar to what it is today five years to come or something different depending on how changes will offset the general harmony between technology, law and law enforcement.
Involving the public in policing in the future will serve a critical role in the success of the activity. To counter terrorism, the policing wing of society heavily relies on members of the community as the informants of suspicious activities within neighborhoods. Supervision and collection of information are made possible through community-oriented policing. The policing entity may have a lot of resources to fight terror but may not achieve effectiveness if members of the society do not cooperate. Therefore, neighborhood residents need to realize that surveillance starts with them and that they must report any suspicious activities around them to the police for appropriate action to be taken (Ransley and Mazerolle, 2009). On the other hand, the public needs to be aware that rules governing the use of technological gadgets and the internet may be subject to change for the common good. Thus, it is essential for the public to observe the set laws to make it easy for the policing agency to identify rogue members of the society. Public cooperation in both cases makes policing executable and useful.
