Law Enforcement

United States Police : Learning Past Lessons to Advance in the Future

As we advance to the Information Age , our lives are also changing swiftly as many changes occur within our midst . With the increasing complexity of modern social life , the changes have to undergo in the social services that people need in communities . Also , these changes had placed greater demands on the various agencies of social control and maintenance . This is especially true for those agencies intending to deal with problems of crime control . Dunham and Alpert (1989 ) have noted that as

problems of social control have grown and become more complex , so have the actions and reactions of the police ' Thus today 's police face the challenges of the fast-changing times with twice the pressure because these law enforcers are viewed by most people as the first line of defense against crime and dis . Society has huge expectations of what the police should and can do about crime and dis that is getting more complex day by day

Many different kinds of government agencies have some responsibility for enforcing the law and /or proving protection : state parks departments federal agencies such as the U .S . Supreme Court Police , some college campus police . Fortunately , crime in the United States is ebbing out after a steep slide downward during the past decade (see Figure 1 compared to other countries . In the United States , street crime overall remains near historic lows , prompting some analysts to declare life in the United States safer than it has ever been . In fact , statistics show that , despite terrorism , the world as a whole seems to be becoming safer . This is in sharp contrast to the perceptions of Americans and others , as polls indicate they believe the world gets more dangerous every day (Stephens , 2003

However , a statistics show that crime is getting lower each year - this is no time for the U .S . police to be complacent . Fact still remains that United States had consistently higher homicide rates than most Western nations from 1980 to 2000 . In the 1990s , the U .S . rate was cut almost in half , but the 2000 rate of 5 .5 homicides per 100 ,000 people was still higher than all nations except those in political and social turmoil Colombia , for instance , had 63 homicides per 100 ,000 people South Africa , 51 . In 1980 and 1990 , U .S . rape rates were higher than those of any Western nation , but by 2000 , Canada took the lead (Stephens , 2003

Figure 1 . Comparative Crime Growth Rates in UK , USA and Japan

In the United States , police agencies are those government agencies that have some responsibility for enforcing the law and /or providing protection to our local communities . There are approximately 18 ,000 such agencies in the United States today , including over 50 federal law enforcement agencies , 49 state police agencies , over 12 ,000 municipal agencies , 3 ,093 sheriffs departments , and more than 1 ,500 special police forces (Marion Oliver , 2006 . These agencies are an...