Sir Robert Peel: Overview

Sir Robert Peel Christina Buenrostro CJA/214 Version 2 August 5, 2010 Roy Diaz Sir Robert Peel Today the world has become a very dangerous place to live. Sometimes you can not even walk to the store without seeing a crime in progress or a crime scene investigation. Children are restricted to their home because of constant danger that goes on in their community. However, communities today have a police department assigned to protect and serve and this includes helping keep crime rates down and society incompliance with the law. Sir Robert Peel is the founder of this structure that we experience today in our communities.

Sir Robert peel started his career as home secretary in 1821(Norman, 1986}. While in office he started to establish a system of preventing crimes and also reforming criminals rather then punishing them. Death penalties in minor crimes were basically abolished and criminal laws were made more humane. Robert peel reformed the goal system; he introduced a payment for gaolers and provided education for inmates. The gaol was a jail that housed prisoners. Prison systems also were reformed and went under supervision of the central government. In the early nineteenth century the law enforcement system in London began to collapse.

It had grown in to an industrial city with various problems such as poverty, disorder, ethnic conflict and experienced rising crime. Peel fought for many years to establish what we know today as the London Metropolitan Police Act of 1829. Officers were known as the “Bobbies” to honor Sir Robert Peel. The police in London introduced three elements that have become our foundation of American policing they included having a mission, strategy, and organization structure. Before the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, officers only responded when a crime had already occurred. If a crime had appen the victims would have to seek out patrol officers. The new police mission was to try to prevent crime before it happened.

This opened the door for continuously patrolling which were referred as fixed “beats”. Officers had to maintain a visible presence through the community. This insured security for the public and their safety. The new police used strategies to help enforce the law. This included evaluating crime rates and how well their strategies were working for the police department and the community {Critchley, T. A. 1967}.

Police officers in London had to gain the mutual respect of citizens.Through the departments restrained and civil conduct they were able to establish their respect. The London Metropolitan Police maintained high personal standards and was under strict supervision. The public are the eyes and ears of law enforcement and they needed to have the public on their side. Peel brought organization to American policing. Prior to Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, officers were selected only on the basis of political connections. The men generally selected were in bad health, with no education, and were often criminals themselves.

Some departments offered recruits as a formal per- service training but other than that you were not required to take a test once the training was completed. Peel used the organization structure from the military which included uniforms, rank designations and the authoritarian system that included command and discipline. Sir Robert Peel had nine principles that he introduced when he formed the Metropolitan Police act of 1829 that many police departments today still reflect on when enforcing the laws and serving the communities they patrol. 1. The mission for whom the law enforcement exists is to prevent crime and disorder. . The capacity of the law enforcement to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of public actions.

3. Law enforcement must secure the willing support of the community in charitable performance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public. 4. The quantities of assistance of the community that can be secured reduce proportionately to the requirement of the use of bodily force. 5. Law enforcement seeks and maintains community support not by catering to community view but by constantly representing absolute fair service to the law. 6.

Law enforcement utilizes physical power to the amount needed to protected observation of the law or to repair order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be inadequate. 7. Law enforcement at all times, ought to sustain a connection with the community that give realism to the historic belief that law enforcement are the community and the public are the law enforcement; the law enforcement being only members of the community who are salaried to give full- time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community wellbeing and existence. 8.Law enforcement should communicate every action strictly toward their function and never appear to take over the powers of the judiciary. 9. The examination of law enforcement good union is nonappearance of crime or disorder, not the noticeable proof of police action in settling it.

Enclosure these principles have shaped America Law Enforcement agencies. They have helped the communities trust the officers and have come to rely on their services. There is still a lot of issues that need to be addressed in Law Enforcement , but Sir Robert Peel laid the foundation for all the work.References Critchley, T. A. 1967} Evaluating Police Strategies A History of Police in England and Wales. London: Constable {Whig account} Retrieved from University Of Phoenix Student Library http://www. credoreference. com/entry/willanpolicing/metropolitan_police_new_police Norman Gash, Sir Robert Peel: the life of Sir Peel after 1830, London; Longman, 1986 Retrieved from www.novelguilde. com www. nha. org/sites/oldgaol. html www. newwestpolice. org References This is a hanging indent.

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