Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel Paper

Police officers jobs today are very difficult; he or she has to deal with a high stress career along with dealing with his or her own personal life experience. Police officers have evolved from all males that patrolled the community to a diversity community of police officers. Today officers have to have some form of education beyond a high school diploma before becoming a police officer. Majority of the officers today do vehicle patrol instead of foot patrol. This paper will describe the impact of Sir Robert Peel on American policing and its history.

Sir Robert Peel is known as the "father" of modern policing, who fought over 30 years to improve law enforcement in England (Walker & Katz, 2008). In 1829 Peel persuaded Parliament to create the London Metropolitan Police (Walker & Katz, 2008) which it is recognized as the first modern police force, where officers are known as "bobbies". Bobbies were assigned walking "beats" which the primary responsibility was to deter crime. Beats worked in assigned areas, where he or she became very familiar with citizens and businesses that they patrolled, this type of policing is considered as Community Policing. According to Peel the real key for policing is "the police are the people and the people are the police." Trust between police and the community is a must to receive effective policing. Community policing requires training officers so he or she will be able to assist in problem solving, facilitation, community organization, communication, mediation, conflict resolution, resource identification, and networking. The Metropolitan Police Act provided funds for the establishment of 1,000 officer force which were governed by strict standards of conduct, discipline (Grant & Terry, 2008) and military style policing. Officers were required to wear uniforms, and carry badges with his or her identification number on it, rank designations, and authoritarian system of command and discipline (Walker & Katz, 2008). This style of policing is still being used today. Sir Robert Peel mission for law enforcement is crime prevention and mission statements. Mission statements are usually posted when he or she entered into a place of business today.

Sir Robert Peel's nine principles of policing are as follows (1) the basic mission for which the police exist is the prevent crime and disorder. (2) The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions. (3) Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public. (4) The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionally to the necessity of the use of physical force. (5) Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating