“I [patroller’s name], do swear, that I will as searcher for guns, swords, and other weapons among the slaves in my district, faithfully, and as privately as I can, discharge the trust reposed in me as the law directs, to the best of my power. So help me, God.”
-Slave Patroller’s Oath, North Carolina, 1828.

 
When one thinks about policing in early America, there are a few images that may come to mind: A county sheriff enforcing a debt between neighbors, a constable serving an arrest warrant on horseback, or a lone night watchman carrying a lantern through his sleeping town. These organized practices were adapted to the colonies from England and formed the foundations of American law enforcement. However, there is another significant origin of American policing that we cannot forget—and that is slave patrols.
The American South relied almost exclusively on slave labor and white Southerners lived in near constant fear of slave rebellions disrupting this economic status quo. As a result, these patrols were one of the earliest and most prolific forms of early policing in the South. The responsibility of patrols was straightforward—to control the movements and behaviors of enslaved populations. According to historian Gary Potter, slave patrols served three main functions.
“(1) to chase down, apprehend, and return to their owners, runaway slaves; (2) to provide a form of organized terror to deter slave revolts; and, (3) to maintain a form of discipline for slave-workers who were subject to summary justice, outside the law.”[i]
Organized policing was one of the many types of social controls imposed on enslaved African Americans in the South. Physical and psychological violence took many forms, including an overseer’s brutal whip, the intentional breakup of families, deprivation of food and other necessities, and the private employment of slave catchers to track down runaways.
Slave patrols were no less violent in their control of African Americans; they beat and terrorized as well. Their distinction was that they were legally compelled to do so by local authorities. In this sense, it was considered a civic duty—one that in some areas could result in a fine if avoided. In others, patrollers received financial compensation for their work. Typically, slave patrol routines included enforcing curfews, checking travelers for a permission pass, catching those assembling without permission, and preventing any form of organized resistance. As historian Sally Hadden writes in her book, Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas,
“The history of police work in the South grows out of this early fascination, by white patrollers, with what African American slaves were doing. Most law enforcement was, by definition, white patrolmen watching, catching, or beating black slaves.”[ii]
The process of how one became a patroller differed throughout the colonies. Some governments ordered local militias to select patrollers from their rosters of white men in the region within a certain age range. In many areas, patrols were made up of lower-class and wealthy landowning white men alike.[iii]  Other areas pulled names from lists of local landowners. Interestingly, in 18^th century South Carolina, landowning white women were included in the potential list of names. If they were called to duty, they were given the option to identify a male substitute to patrol in their place.[iv]
First formed in 1704 in South Carolina, patrols lasted over 150 years, only technically ending with the abolition of slavery during the Civil War. However, just because the patrols lost their lawful status did not mean that their influence died out in 1865. Hadden argues there are distinct parallels between the legal slave patrols before the war and extralegal terrorization tactics used by vigilante groups during Reconstruction, most notoriously, the Ku Klux Klan.[v]
After the Civil War, Southern police departments often carried over aspects of the patrols. These included systematic surveillance, the enforcement of curfews, and even notions of who could become a police officer. Though a small number of African Americans joined the police force in the South during Reconstruction, they met active resistance.
Though law enforcement looks very different today, the profession developed from practices implemented in the colonies.
 
 
 
[i] Gary Potter, The History of Policing in the United States, EKU School of Justice Studies. https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf
[ii] Hadden, Sally E. Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001), 4.
[iii] Hadden, 21
[iv] Hadden, 73.
[v] Hadden, 203.

Definition or Explanation of term or system and important people involved with the term or system.

Significance in Development of Law Enforcement

Additional Information

1918: Introduction of the Flying Squad. With motor vehicles and a wagon hired from the Great Western Railway this became the first 'mobile force' of detectives and arrested 396 people in its first nine months.

The history of the Texas Rangers is as complicated as Texas history itself

The history of the Texas Rangers spans nearly 200 years. Thousands of Rangers patrolled the frontier, fought in military battles, and arrested cattle rustlers. Their story contains heroic acts of bravery, but also moments that challenge our idea of the Rangers as noble lawmen. They protected settlers and enforced laws, but also sometimes executed thieves without a trial, drove Native American tribes from their homelands, and some Rangers even lynched Mexicans and Mexican Americans along the Texas-Mexico border.

They were men who could not be stampeded.Colonel Homer T. Garrison, Jr.

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“Rangers for the common defense”

In 1823, empresario Stephen F. Austin announced he would supplement the Mexican government’s militia patrols with his own force of ten men, whom he paid out of his own pocket. Thus, the Texas Rangers were born.

Unsatisfied with the protection the Mexican government provided, Stephen F. Austin created his own force of “rangers” to protect the men and women living in his colony. Austin tasked the Rangers with patrolling the roads and wilderness around the colony for “errant thieves united with Indians.” Many of the men who volunteered as Rangers lived in Austin’s colony and hoped their service would help protect their own families from attacks by American Indians. Some were also motivated by the desire to take revenge on American Indians for past raids.

During the Texas Revolution in 1836, the provisional government authorized the first official, government-sanctioned Ranger force to patrol the Texas frontier and protect settlers from raids by American Indians. Though this force was reorganized after Texas won its independence from Mexico, it continued to function in much the same way: groups of volunteers were organized as they were needed to patrol and protect the frontier, then disbanded when their specific missions were done.

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Stephen F. Austin wrote his order creating the first Ranger force on the back of a land document dated August 4, 1823. The company was led by Lieutenant Moses Morrison. Image courtesy Stephen F. Austin Papers, di_08980, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin

Patrolling the Frontier

After the 1836 Texas Revolution, a wave of new settlers headed to Texas enticed by acres of land offered for little money. This increased settlement led to conflicts with American Indians who already occupied the territory and a renewed desire to send the Texas Rangers out on patrol.

To protect the new Texans, Ranger companies patrolled the frontier as well as the border with Mexico. It was during this time that John “Jack” Coffee Hays became the most famous Texas Ranger of the era. Fighting in some of the period’s most significant battles between Texans and American Indians, Hays quickly proved himself to be a strong leader, smart decision-maker, and fearless and brutal fighter. He rose up the ranks quickly and was soon leading Ranger companies on frontier patrols and in battles against American Indians.

Hays and the Texas Rangers also played a crucial role in securing the Texas-Mexico border during the 1840s. Agaton Quinones and Manuel Leal led groups of thieves who crossed the Rio Grande into Texas to rob travelers and rustle cattle, then fled back to Mexico to sell their stolen goods. These bandits operated under the protection of Mexican Captain Ignacio Garcia, who received a percentage of the profits. In response to the increasing number of attacks by Quinones’s and Leal’s men, Hays was given broad legal powers to track down the thieves and execute them without trial, which he did.

Each [Ranger] was armed with a rifle, a pistol, and a knife. With a Mexican blanket tied behind his saddle and small wallet in which he carried salt and ammunition and perhaps a little panola or parched corn, spiced and sweetened – a great allayer of thirst – and tobacco, he was equipped for a month. The little body of men, unencumbered by baggage wagons or pack trains, moved as lightly over the prairie as the Indians.

– John C. Caperton, author of “Sketch of Colonel John C. Hays, Texas Ranger”

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During the Texas Revolution, the Texas provisional government authorized Rangers to be paid $1.25 per day plus $5.00 per month for food and supplies; officers earned $50 to $60 per month. However, the men had to provide their own horses, tack, weapons, and ammunition. This 1848 print depicts a Ranger astride his horse. Image courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Rangers as Soldiers

On December 29, 1845, Texas became part of the United States. The boundaries established led directly to a war with Mexico. Many current and former Rangers joined the fight.

Using the skills they had honed battling American Indians in Texas, the Rangers quickly made a name for themselves as bold fighters during the U.S.-Mexican War (1846-48). Their scouting and tracking skills also helped locate Mexican camps and guerilla fighters both during and after the war.

The Rangers’ prowess in battle was striking, and by the end of the war the words “Texas Ranger” evoked images of fierce fighters and expert trackers around the world. Some Mexicans even gave them the nickname “los diablos Tejanos”: the devil Texans. Unfortunately, the Rangers’ behavior in other areas would directly contradict their heroic battlefield reputation. After the Battle of Monterrey, one group of Rangers burned homes and killed as many as 100 civilians. Others stole whiskey and livestock from Mexican peasants. General Zachary Taylor said of the Rangers under his command, “There is scarcely a form of crime that has not been reported to me as committed by them.”

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By the mid-1840s, gun manufacturer Samuel Colt heard that his five-shot Paterson revolver had served Texas Rangers well in their fights against Comanche warriors. In 1846, Colt approached Texas Ranger Samuel Walker to ask how the gun could be improved. From their discussions, the larger, more powerful Colt six-shooter was born. Colt even engraved a scene from one of Ranger Jack Hays’s most famous battles against Comanches on the cylinder. Colt did get one detail wrong, though: he showed Hays and his men wearing the uniforms of U.S. Dragoons. Image courtesy Autry National Center, Los Angeles

NCJ Number

145539

Date Published

1993

Length

9 pages

Annotation

The history of New York City's Police Department is traced from 1625 up through the 1990's, and changes in police organization and response to crime are noted.

Abstract

In the Dutch era from 1625 to 1664, the first professional police department was created in New Amsterdam. Police officers used hand rattles as they patrolled the streets to discourage crime and apprehend criminals. Under British rule from 1664 to 1783, constables were charged with keeping the peace. They focused on such offenses as excessive drinking, gambling, prostitution, and church service disturbances. During the Revolutionary War, the British appointed a military governor and employed citizen patrols to protect New York City residents. After independence, New York adopted the London police model and established a paid professional police force in 1828. The first set of printed rules and regulations was issued to the police force in 1845, and full uniforms were adopted in 1853. The Metropolitan Police District was subsequently established by the Metropolitan Police Act. During the Civil War, violent crime increased in New York City, and a police insurance fund was established in 1864 to guarantee financial security to the families of police officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. Between 1870 and 1894, New York's police department was restructured. In 1898, the department assimilated 18 smaller police agencies and later began to use plain clothes police officers for the first time. The department experienced a period of modernization from 1900 to 1920. Following World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and civil unrest in the 1960's, the focus in 1970's was on rebuilding police-community relations. An effort was made in the 1980's to strike a balance between rapid response and police-community relations, and community policing was adopted in the early 1990's.

The community-oriented policing and problem-solving unit builds and maintains relationships with the community.

Community policing is a collaborative effort involving police officers and the community to address problems affecting the community. In addition to normal field work, the COPPS unit:

• Offers security programs to enhance safety at home and at work, including security surveys

• Coordinates community programs such as National Night Out, Operation Rudolph, the All Nets No Drugs basketball tournament, and Trunk or Treat

• Speaks to neighborhood and apartment groups

• Provides free residential and business security surveys

• Advocate and support the crime-free multi-housing program for multifamily and rental communities

• Reduces crime, drug use and gang activity in apartment complexes and residential areas

• Proactively work to solve community problems and issues

• Coordinates school resources officers for the Blue Valley School District, Shawnee Mission School District, and St. Thomas Aquinas High School.

Hoover studied law at night at George Washington University, where he received a bachelor of laws degree in 1916 and a master of laws degree in the following year. He entered the Department of Justice as a file reviewer in 1917, and two years later he became special assistant to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, in which post he oversaw the mass roundups and deportations of suspected Bolsheviks (communists) after World War I. He was named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (as it was then called) in May 1924 and confirmed as director seven months later. Finding the organization in disrepute because of the scandals of Warren G. Harding’s administration, he reorganized and rebuilt it on a professional basis, recruiting agents on merit and instituting rigorous methods of selecting and training personnel. He established a fingerprint file, which became the world’s largest; a scientific crime-detection laboratory; and the FBI National Academy, to which selected law enforcement officers from all parts of the country were sent for special training.

In the early 1930s the exploits of gangsters in the United States were receiving worldwide publicity. Hoover took advantage of this to publicize the achievements of the FBI in tracking down and capturing well-known criminals. Both the FBI’s size and its responsibilities grew steadily under his management. In the late 1930s President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave him the task of investigating both foreign espionage in the United States and the activities of communists and fascists alike. When the Cold War began in the late 1940s, the FBI undertook the intensive surveillance of communists and other left-wing activists in the United States. Hoover’s animus toward radicals of every kind led him to aggressively investigate both the Ku Klux Klan and Martin Luther King, Jr., and other black activists in the 1960s. At the same time, he maintained a hands-off policy toward the Mafia, which was allowed to conduct its operations nationwide practically free of FBI scrutiny or interference.