Law enforcement

SIGNIFICANCE: In 2018, American law enforcement encompassed approximately 17,541 different public agencies at the local, state, and federal levels of government that employ about 1,214,000 sworn officers and civilian personnel. Primary law enforcement is performed at the local level, which includes cities, municipalities, and counties. State and federal law-enforcement officials enforce laws at their levels of government and also assist local law-enforcement agencies with their functions.

Depending on the local jurisdiction, law-enforcement officers may serve as police officers or deputy sheriffs. The United States has a mixture of police departments and sheriff offices/departments which serve a variety of different functions.

History

American law enforcement has its roots in English history. Modeled on the principles and structure of the London Metropolitan Police Force of the early nineteenth century, early American policing began in earnest during the mid-nineteenth century in response to the urban problems brought on by the Industrial Revolution, as increasing numbers of people lived and worked together in densely populated and racially and ethnically diverse communities. Early American policing was tainted by the significant influences of politics and local politicians who sought to gain control of the police for political purposes. Appointments and promotions were based largely on the value of individual officers to the local political authorities responsible for administering police departments. Corruption and political patronage were very common in departments.

From the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth century the functions of law enforcement in the United States included not only the traditional crime-fighting roles but also social services that complemented local social service agencies in assisting the poor and disadvantaged. As law enforcement entered the twentieth century and technology advanced, political pressures on police lessened, and departments became more professional. Among the changes taking place during this era of professionalization, or reform, included the adoption of motorized patrol using automobiles and motorcycles, the application of civil service system hiring processes, improved training, forensic science improvements, and a general increased profile with the public.

The Prohibition era of the 1920s elevated the influence of organized crime, placing the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the media spotlight and cementing the “crime-fighting” image of law enforcement for several decades. By contrast, the social turmoil of the 1960s soiled the reputation of local law enforcement as a result of direct confrontations between police and war protesters, civil rights demonstrators, and drug users. Many of these confrontations provoked police to use excessive force, thereby damaging their image among the citizens whom they were sworn to serve and protect. This era of policing resulted in a number of significant changes within the law-enforcement community.

In 1968, the US Congress enacted the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, which created the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. This agency was created to improve police professionalism and increase the capacity to fight crime. It provided federal grants to local police to improve their crime-fighting technology and subsidize the education of police officers who wanted to make law enforcement their careers.

Efforts were also made to improve police-community relationships with the intent to forge partnerships with the community to fight crime and improve the quality of life. This eventually evolved into a philosophical change in policing from a primarily reactive response to problems to a combination reactive/proactive response in which problem solving became the primary focus of law enforcement through the implementation of a community policing strategy. This strategy has carried into the twenty-first century.

Organizational Structure

Law-enforcement agencies typically include operational and administrative, or support services, components. The offices of police chief, police commissioner, and police superintendent are generally separate components. Operational components usually include basic patrol operations and criminal-investigation branches. They often also include traffic enforcement and special operations divisions.

The administrative components typically encompass the more purely administrative, or “business,” functions of the agencies, such as human resources offices, training divisions, crime laboratories, fleet management, information management, and other support services.

The offices of police chiefs normally include the chiefs’ administrative staffs; internal affairs, or investigative, components; and inspections components, which handle internal audits. Public affairs, or media offices, are also placed under the chiefs’ offices.

Local Police Functions

The primary functions of local law-enforcement agencies revolve around basic law enforcement and crime fighting. These functions include the enforcement of state laws and local ordinances and codes. Law-enforcement officers arrest violators and often testify in trials. Officers are also responsible for order and conflict management. They break up fights, intervene in violent domestic disputes, and other conflicts, which often include disagreements between landlords and their tenants and merchants and their consumers.

Local agencies’ crime prevention responsibilities include helping to educate the public on how to reduce opportunities for crime and initiating local plans to prevent terrorist activities. The intelligence responsibilities of law enforcement require officers to gather information that may assist their agencies to reduce crime and improve the quality of life in the local communities.

Local agencies are also usually responsible for enforcing traffic laws and investigating accidents. Their mission is to help reduce both the frequency of traffic accidents and their severity through systematic evaluations of problem areas. Local law enforcement also provides a vast array of other services, which include investigating animal complaints and handling juvenile and administrative matters.

State and Federal Law-Enforcement Agencies

Every US state but Hawaii has a primary state law-enforcement agency. Most have similar responsibilities. All state law-enforcement agencies are committed to working with myriad local law-enforcement agencies within their jurisdictions. The cooperative relationships between state and local agencies typically include memoranda of understanding (MOU) that spells out the duties and functions of the state and local agencies.

State law-enforcement agencies coordinate statewide criminal investigations, provide statewide forensic services and crime laboratory assistance, and enforce traffic laws on interstate highway systems.

Well over one hundred different departments and agencies have their own law-enforcement services. Of these, by far the largest and best known are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). These agencies investigate specifically federal crimes, coordinate investigations with state and local law-enforcement agencies, and assist in homeland security activities.

Law-Enforcement Standards

During the 1970s, it was widely recognized that there was a need to improve professionalism of law enforcement in agencies throughout the United States. To help achieve that goal, four prestigious law-enforcement organizations came together and developed professional standards in law enforcement. These groups included the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriffs Association (NSA), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). Their work led to the creation of the Commission for the Accreditation of Law-Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in 1979. A private commission, it comprises private and public sector executives who are dedicated to improving law-enforcement services in the United States.

The standards defined by the new commission covered many critical areas in law enforcement, including the use of deadly force, high-speed pursuit driving, prisoner processing and detention, hiring practices, training, patrol and investigative procedures, and handling of juvenile matters. By 2020, roughly 838 separate law-enforcement agencies in the United States had been accredited by the commission for meeting its standards. However, some are skeptical about the efficacy of CALEA accreditation, with a 2009 study by the public policy research center Cato Institute finding that CALEA-accredited agencies in fact had a slightly higher average of incidents of police misconduct than nonaccredited agencies.

Community Policing

The vast majority of law-enforcement agencies in the United States engage in some form of community policing. This philosophy of policing was initiated in the 1970s as a result of a fundamental evaluation of how law-enforcement services were being provided and how well they worked. A philosophical switch from reactive to reactive/proactive policing made its debut.

The fundamental emphasis in community policing is developing active partnerships with communities to enhance mutual trust. After relationships are developed, the emphasis switches to problem solving and improving the quality of life within the communities. In contrast to earlier eras, when police felt that they could handle crime problems without active community involvement, the modern community-oriented policing era emphasizes the mutual benefits to be gained by police-community cooperation.

Modern police officers train in police academies that encourage critical thinking and train officers to see themselves as “project managers” within their beats. It is no longer acceptable for officers to be simply “report writers” who place bandages on problems and are content to let the next shifts deal with the same kinds of problems at the same locations. Officers are encouraged to think more creatively and to solicit assistance in problem solving from other governmental agencies, community groups, private sector groups, and the media.

Challenges

Law enforcement faces many new challenges in the twenty-first century. A primary challenge comes from new threats of terrorism, especially since the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001. Police in every jurisdiction must now be alert to the danger signs of possible terrorist training and activity and know how to deal with the new threats. The challenge of facing the terrorism threat cannot be overestimated.

Shrinking law-enforcement budgets present another serious challenge. Agencies must continuously look at ways to carry out their functions in the most cost-efficient manner possible. Likewise, the recruitment, retention, scheduling, and deployment of police officers will continue to require innovative thinking and approaches on the part of police executives.

In the 2010s there has been increased scrutiny of police brutality and other misconduct, especially excessive force used against African American suspects. These trends continued into the 2020s with the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, resulting in nationwide protests. As a result, many police departments have had to rethink their training processes and increase oversight of individual officers through methods such as body cameras.

As modern technologies continue to change and grow more complex, so, too, do the challenges to law enforcement to keep up with the changes. Computerization of all aspects of law enforcement and improvements in communication—especially in dispatching centers—are now permanent priorities. Modernizing forensic services, such as DNA analysis, is also a critical concern.

Finally, there is an unprecedented need for interagency communication and cooperation. With criminal mobility increasing at an unprecedented pace, police must develop significant relationships with all levels of law enforcement and allied agencies in order to improve information sharing.

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