Police History Essay (Week One)
Policing in today’s society is very different than what it was back in the 1800’s. In my reading of The Police in America, An Introduction, Seventh Edition Walker and Katz explain how the very first American police officer received no training, forms of communication, policy or procedure guidelines or weapons. Corruption and abuse of police authority ran rampant. This is vastly different than to today’s policing in America. American policing was born as a product from the English heritage and focused on three main features which helped create American policing as we know of it today. The three main features were high value on individual liberty and on ...view middle of the document...
Federal laws established are the basic laws which must be followed. State and local jurisdictions may make laws more restricted but cannot loosen or conflict with federal law. Our basic laws come from the U.S. Constitution and more specifically the 4th amendment which protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizures.
Federal law enforcement is heavily relied upon by many state law enforcement agencies. The government has jurisdiction is all states and territories within the United States and have a vast amount of resources and information available to them. A lot of federal laws cannot be enforced by state or local agencies and must be referred to the U.S. Government for further investigation or prosecution. Immigration is a great example on where the government has the only exclusive authority in enforcing immigration laws, even if the state wants to adopt its own laws governing illegal immigration. In most cases, federal law is much less restrictive than state law. On the flip side to that coin, federal law enforcement agencies also need the help of state and local law enforcement agencies. Since the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal government has created new agencies while consolidating others in response to the ongoing terrorist threat the nation faces. Most information obtained is found at the lowest level of law enforcement which usually begins at the state or local level. A simple traffic stop which turns into a large drug seizure, can relate information about terrorist activity which the federal government was previously blind to. The Federal Government is charged with ensuring all state and local law enforcement agencies are performing their duties within...
