Early roots of policing: Sir Robert Peel’s (1820s) nine principles and their connection to modern day policing

Sir Robert Peel is known in the history books as the person who created the first form of an English police department, called the London Metropolitan Police. However, the first acknowledgement of any sort of police department or criminal justice system occurred 1000 years earlier by the English King Alfred the Great. King Alfred the Great came up with this idea when he was preparing himself for an invasion by the Danes. The King established a system of mutual pledge, which was a form of society control. This system allowed the citizens to come together to protect each other and at the same time created an organized and …show more content…

(Getting Arizona Involved in Neighborhoods) (Phoenix Police Department, 2006).

American policing has changed significantly throughout the last 30 to 300 years. American policing in the last 300 years was the foundation of constructing the modern police departments and officers; and in the last 100 years American policing has demonstrated the disorganization and corruption within the police departments and the political organizations. However, in the last 30 years American policing has shown vast improvements in personnel standards and system of accountability, including the values of due process and equal protection. Since, Sir Peel first introduction of his nine methods of policing the United States has implied his methods into our policing of today.

Many researchers argue the method to social control can be provided through full-time presence of uniformed personnel in communities in hoping to establish a decrease in crime and disorder within the public. Others would argue that the birth of the model police departments is credit to Sir Robert Peel and without a doubt laid the framework for one of the most used creation to law enforcement to date (Williams, 2003).

It is without a doubt that many mistakes have been made along the last 300 years; however, the policing system is much better and continuing to strive for excellence. Today, police officers goes through an intensive hiring