The Changing Focus of the Police

Early policing in America was based on the watchman style. Even into the nineteenth century, policing was not very organized. That changed in 1838 when Boston created the first organized police department. New York City followed in 1845, and Philadelphia in 1854. Early policing in the United States was political, and the buying and selling of police positions was common. And yet in some jurisdictions police officers were also street sweepers and some opened their empty jail cells to the homeless for shelter and food. Still, training was non-existent and more often than not, the great arbiter of disputes was the end of a police officer's nightstick.