Jordan Phillips

24 January 2011

Assignment 3

Similar to The Evolving Strategy of Policing, A Political Economy of Community

Policing categorizes the evolution of policing into five different eras. In each of these eras

Barlow argues that maintaining the social order is the primary function of police while the crisis

of legitimacy is what fuels police change. Barlow begins with a discussion of Pre-Industrial

Police and the creation of slave patrols and ends with the rise of community policing in the Post-

Modern Era. (Brandl and Barlow2004)

Pre-industrial police was categorized by the creation of slave patrols to maintain order

between plantations and suppress slave rebellion. Barlow argues that these slave patrols were

the first publically funded municipal police department. After the Dredd Scott Decision denied

sanctuary to runaway slaves in the northern states, the Texas Rangers (the first state police) were

in charge of capturing runaway slave trying to escape out of the country. As the industrial

revolution took place the rise of immigrant populations or “dangerous classes” became a concern

for wealthy industrialists who funded public and private police organizations in order to preserve

a disciplined workforce. To accompany this slave patrols were still in existence even after the

Civil War, enforcing segregation laws and discriminatory practices carried down from the north.

federal bureaus, municipal police departments focused on removing officer discretion. (Brandl

and Barlow2004)

Following these two early stages of policing, Barlow argues that police organizations

moved into the modern era. Just as Kelling and Moore noted, this time period was characterized

by a move towards a more traditional model of policing. Basing their organization strategies on
the newly forming 1870’s forced police into a more professional model as the threat of social

revolution grew. As the 1960’s approached Barlow argues that police moved into the postmodern

era. During this time public faith in law enforcement began to fail as fear of crime rose due to

riots over the war and the Civil Rights Movement. The initial response to this social upheaval

was to increase militarization and professionalization within the department. This created a sense

of team oriented policing but only served to distance the police from the community, increasing

the public’s lack of trust and dissatisfaction with the department. (Brandl and Barlow2004)

During the 1980’s police entered a new period of development. Barlow states that this

time is defined by the rise of community policing (or image management policing). This new

strategy encourages public scrutiny of police practices also requires that the community take a

bigger role in crime prevention (Brandl and Barlow2004). However, although Skogan praises

community policing as being effective in reducing the fear of crime he also states that there are

no current ways to measure the results of implementing this style of policing within a particular

community. Skogan also argues that community policing is a process or philosophy made up of

three core elements consisting of citizen involvement, decentralization, and problem-solving, but

that in reviewing the practices of community policing agencies such as COPS (The Office of

Community Oriented Policing) are too quick to judge the effectiveness of such programs by

cities such as Chicago, which experienced dramatic improvements between the relationship of

the police to the public. These improvements are not the norm for most cities where community

policing is usually only popular in suburban middle class neighborhoods. (Weisburd and Braga

2006)