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night-watch system of 1636 through to the mid-1900s,” the essence of which ostensibly consisted of “a brief set of directions and [being] sent out on [one’s] own” (p. 527). Conceptually and operationally, any form of police training was nonexistent during the colonial era.
America's Political Era of Policing (1840–1930)
Underscoring the historical parallels between society and its police, Kelling and Moore (1998, cited in Brandl & Barlow, 2004) explained that the political era of policing is so named because of the contentious relationship that existed between the police and politicians. Political corruption permeated nearly every aspect of local government, and police were at the centre. When examining this period of time, it is important to bear in mind that its characterization is principally based on the activities that were systemic to America's major cities. The perspective does not necessarily include the hundreds of small local police departments with fewer than 10 officers. According to Bailey (1989), 57 of America's largest cities had established their police departments between 1850 and 1880. This was due in great part to the influences of the Industrial Revolution, which attracted a large and culturally diverse influx of people to America's cities from both its rural areas and countries such as Ireland and Germany. This convergence of social, political, and economic factors led to overpopulation, social unrest, social disorder, and crime. These problems were further compounded by the deleterious effects of the Civil War (1861–1865). Not only did the population of the United States triple in size from 30 million to over 92 million during this period of time, but so did the number of people living in its cities. In fact, “the number of people living in cities grew from a low of 5 percent in the early nineteenth century to over 45 percent by 1910.” For example, the population in the cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia grew from less than 100,000 people in the early nineteenth century to more than 1 million by 1890 (Bailey, p. 558).
Notwithstanding many of the positive aspects of this period, such as the close bond that the police had established with the community, this era has been and continues to be characterized by the adverse effect of