History of the Police

In the late 1800’s between the early 1900’s the history of the police was almost nonexistent. Most people that lived in that time period believed that they were going to have to take the protection and investigation of the police in their own hands. Yet in the 1880’s the idea of the big city and leisure time in to the American society. In cities such as Los angles, Baltimore and Chicago, in all of these cities leisure would change the police business for good.

Rush St. bridge

Leisure was known to be time for relaxation and time to take a break from work.  Life in the big city was hectic and unlike small towns where everyone knows everyone, the city life is more unanimous and it is vibrant where you can get away with many things without people knowing that the crime was you.  In the city of los angles the policing occupation was not a popular job at the begging of the century. The city had over 100,000 people and there were only less than 70 officers to account for the whole city. The cities political system was corrupt because of this; the mayor had a lot of control over the poli^th century there was a man named Charles E. Sebastian who was the new police chief. He made the rule that there had to be at least 200 sworn officers in the department at one time. During this time the LAPD went through a tough change with many new influenced such as the automobile (the flying squad). The flying squad was known for this because they drove around in supped up cars to help put down violent riots. The LAPD had one of the largest amount of officers on duty yet they still have one of the highest kill rate of officers, over 2% of sworn officers are killed in action each year.

ce department and its staff. Yet in the begging of the 19

Baltimore police headquaters

The Baltimore Police Department was much different than the Los Angeles Police Department in the turn of the Century. The Baltimore PD was more modern that the Los Angeles, they started to innovate much sooner than any of the three Departments. In 1885 they created box system. This would help with communications between officers on the street to the “station house” this would be better for the city because when a violent uprising would occur they could radio It in quicker. On October 25, 1885 the first patrol wagon went out and soon after that the harbor patrol was established. The city started to have many new ideas and divisions

go out such as; in 1903 the traffic division was developed.  In 1913 a police academy was established, in 1920 the board of Police commissioners was creating electing General Charles D Gather as the first commissioner. And finally in 1915 the, motorcycle unit w
as developed. The Baltimore PD had a very tough area to protect including 78.3 square miles of land and 7.7 miles of water ways that they had to protect adding up to a total of 83 miles that was in there jurisdiction. The Baltimore PD was not the largest but it was one of the most innovative. 

police exam 

1915 motorcycle cop

The Chicago police was one of the most welcoming police departments in the nation. In the year 1877 the first black officer was sworn into the force and soon after in 1885 the first woman entered the force. They were known as “policewomen” and there main purpose was to work with women and children in the field because they were known to be more gentle and caring. The wealthy subdivisions of Chicago were very afraid of all the violent protests so they set up a private police services. This was a eye opener to the Chicago PD so then they started to ramp up the officers to join the force. The force was not known to be the best in the area with a reputation that the officers would be lounging in saloons and streets. But in 1904 Captain Alexander Pipers made a investigation about the officers which ramped them up to be one of the largest police departments in the nation with a whopping 3,314 employees in 1907 averaging 30 arrests per officer. In 1910 the officers of the Chicago PD start to have formal training and the average patrol hours a week were 63. This new work ethic created a masculine environment which still is in effect to this day. But starting in the 1920’s the new Prohibition started to bring federal agents to the city.

1887 wagon patrol 

A federal agent. When most people think about a federal agent they think of the FBI the biggest federal agency, created in 1908 or the CIA well before the Secret service  started to protect the president in 1894 they were a special group of agents who were detective tracking down The Klu Klux Klan, train and bank Robbers, and also alcohol smugglers. They were a small and deadly group who had to be tacitly prepared for anything. The influence of the federal and private police was a huge influence before the rise of the police in big city’s at the turn of the century. They were hired by wealthy businessmen or neighborhoods for protection. Yet there was still one thing that gave the private police such a good name. “The railroads were a major employer of private security agents, especially because the railroads covered such a vast expanse of rural area” (Stephenson 21) 

The police in the turn of the century was a huge impact on the life of the people in big cities. The anonymousness of the bug city attracted the criminals but the police responded coming up with bigger and better things, innovating and creating machines that can keep up with the outlaws. 

·         LAPD –I used this to find out the differences in the Los Angeles Police Department.

·          Baltimore police department –This gave me a lot of information about the changes in the police department and also gave many dates to go off of and all of the modernization that Chicago went through.

·         Chicago Police Department – I found this web site which gave me many ideas that I could use to compare the Chicago police department to all of the other departments that I picked.

·         Wages- I found this in which it gave me a idea of the wages and retirement options that the officers had in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s.

·         American History -  I used this to use some of the reasons that the police started to rise in this time.

·          Policing in America-  I found many things in this book nut mostly found about the federal police but mostly focused on the secret service before they started the protection of the president.