Police Administrative Trends

In the 1900s, policing focused on the preservation of political and corrupt relationships between police and politicians. Law enforcement officers had direct relationships to the political parties and their actions facilitated the politicians in power and punishing lower class citizens and the enemies of the political parties. The political corruption and lack of enforcement during this time became a major concern. In the end, the political era ended as the administrative and reform era blossomed.

The major goal of the reform era was to hold law enforcement officers lawfully accountable for their heinous behaviors. By the beginning of the 20th century, law enforcement officers were out of control. They treated ethnic and religious minorities with brutality. Reformers began taking appropriate actions to remove the tight connections between policing and political power by focusing the management principles in an administrative method, which could evaluate an officers inappropriate actions in an effort to hold them accountable for the illegal brutality against community members. Furthermore, the administrative approach focused on higher levels of education, training, uniformity, and the use of improved technology. Introducing these ideals aided in the professionalization of policing methods.

J. Edgar Hoover was one influential figure in American law enforcement. As the director of the Bureau of Investigation, a federal department in the 1930s, he used his power to project the FBI as elite, devoted, skilled, and honest team of professionals (Walker, 2008). It was this expertly manipulated vision of the FBI that had a major effect on local and state law enforcement. Hoovers focus on education and training eventually served as a model for future local and state authorities to become what they are today.

Community policing is presently a new method of policing that supporters have said “is the new era in policing” (Walker, 2008, p. 50). Community policing is a...