Police in America. Steven G. Brandl
a responsibility assigned to the police. Another element of technology that significantly affected the work demands of the police was the telephone, which turned police departments into twenty-four-hour agencies that were just a call away.
The police were also confronted with new demands unrelated to technology. Concerns about crime became a major issue. With the 1920s came a rise in serious crime—in perception if not in fact. Kidnapping, gangsters, and bombings attributed to communists were front-page news. Prohibition and the Great Depression also placed significant new demands on the police. In the face of these developments, the police were once again in the midst of a crisis.
Reform as Anti-Politics
The new demands and technology of the early 1900s led to the reform era of policing.36 Forward-thinking police leaders, such as August Vollmer and O. W. Wilson, advocated a new philosophy and methods of policing (see Exhibit 2.1). The new philosophy focused on the idea of the police as experts, police professionalism, and getting the police out from under the control of politicians. Technology was an important element of the reform era. Automobiles allowed the police to institute preventive patrol as a means of deterring criminals and to respond quickly to crime scenes in order to make more arrests. The two-way radio allowed police supervisors to be in constant communication with officers and to have supervision over them. It also allowed patrol officers to be directed to places where they were needed. With the telephone, citizens could easily summon the police when needed.
reform era: An era in policing that centered on removing the police from the control of politicians and making departments more professional and efficient.
The Creation of Federal and State Law Enforcement Agencies
In the face of corrupt and ineffective municipal police agencies, state enforcement agencies were created to assist local police departments with the new demands they faced. In 1905, Pennsylvania created the first state police agency. It was designed to provide a police presence throughout the state, to assist the local police, and to provide police services in less populated rural areas.37 In 1935, the Texas Legislature created the Texas Department of Public Safety, which consisted of the Texas Rangers and the Texas Highway Patrol. The Bureau of Investigation, later known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was created in 1909 and quickly became a powerful law enforcement agency. The FBI led the war against communists, gangsters, and kidnappers. The FBI developed a crime laboratory, collected crime information, greatly developed the use of fingerprinting as a method of identification, and created the FBI National Police Academy to provide advanced training to police leaders across the country.
Exhibit 2.1 August Vollmer and O. W. Wilson
August Vollmer and O. W. Wilson were two prominent police leaders who ushered in the reform era of policing.
August Vollmer was appointed police chief of the Berkeley, California, police department in 1907 (for two years prior he was the town marshal). He transformed the Berkeley department into a premiere, professional agency that was the role model for others worldwide. He hired police officers with college educations and recruited female and African American officers. He developed the country’s first university criminology program at the University of California, Berkeley. Vollmer instituted automobile, motorcycle, and bicycle patrols in his department; was responsible for putting two-way radios in patrol cars; and developed the first crime laboratory in a police department. He saw policing as a profession rather than just a job, and he was extremely concerned with how police chiefs could be easily removed from office on the whims of politicians.
In 1923 Vollmer was appointed police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He had limited success in reforming the LAPD given the widespread corruption that existed in the city at the time. In 1924, he returned to Berkeley. In 1931, he was the primary author of the Wickersham Report; the Wickersham Commission, which generated the report, studied Prohibition enforcement and related police practices and corruption. Vollmer retired in 1932 and died in 1955. He is known as the “father of American law enforcement.”
O. W. Wilson had been a student of Vollmer’s at Berkeley and was a police officer in Berkeley when Vollmer was chief. Wilson later became chief of the departments in Fullerton, California, and Wichita, Kansas, and during these tenures, he took many of Vollmer’s ideas and extended them. He was just twenty-five years old when he was appointed chief in Fullerton in 1925. He then served as a professor of police administration and as dean of the School of Criminology at the University of California, Davis, from 1950 to 1960. He wrote the book Police Administration, which was widely viewed at the time as the “bible” of police administration. Wilson recognized and advocated the value of motorized patrol and rapid police response in effective policing. In 1960, he was appointed chief of the Chicago Police Department and was given wide latitude to reform and improve it. He retired from the department in 1967 and died in 1972.38
Photo 2.4 August Vollmer was one of the first leaders of the reform era of policing and the “police professionalism” movement. He is now referred to as the “father of American law enforcement.”
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Photo 2.5 A former student of Vollmer’s, O. W. Wilson became chief of the Chicago Police Department in the 1960s. Wilson advocated Vollmer’s beliefs and sought to institute reforms, such as motorized patrol and rapid response to calls for service.
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Detectives as the Ultimate Professionals
During the reform era, detectives became an important tool in the efforts of police departments to enhance their professionalism and deal with crime. Detectives were the ultimate professionals. They were well paid and trained. The entertainment media at the time portrayed detectives as efficient and effective crime solvers. As a continuing attempt to provide organizational control over officers and detectives, detective work became much more removed from interactions with criminals. Due to scientific advances made during the period, more emphasis was placed on getting information using science (and from victims and witnesses) as opposed to from criminals. In 1910, fingerprints were used for the first time as evidence in a criminal trial.39
A Question to Consider 2.3 The Underrepresentation of People of Color in Policing
Throughout history and even to a large extent today, people of color have been underrepresented as police officers, especially in larger cities. Why? Although this issue is discussed in detail in Chapter 5, it is worthwhile to consider the question now.
The Reform Era and (Lack of) Diversity in Police Departments
Many police departments increased the representation of minority officers during the reform era, although the proportion of minority officers was still small and seldom approached the representation of minority citizens in the city (see Figure 2.1). However, minority officers far outnumbered female officers at the time. As in earlier decades, female officers were still most often referred to as police matrons, and their duties related primarily to women and children offenders.
Then the 1960s Happened
Throughout the 1950s, things were going smoothly for the police. By most accounts, crime was under control. The FBI reported that over 90% of homicides were solved by the police. Then things changed. Between 1960 and 1970, the crime rate doubled. It was the time of the civil rights movement and the related demonstrations, marches, and riots. The police found themselves on the front lines of the riots and demonstrations; often it was white officers facing off against African American