Thompson 1

Brock Thompson
Professor Julia Ellis
CJ 1010
15 December 2015

Technology has changed exponentially throughout the history of law enforcement. The
rate at which technology has evolved is wild. It all begin in April of 1631 with a group of 6
volunteers in Boston who patrolled at night making their rounds. (Johnson 1981) Today things
are much different with a much larger population existing in the United States and many more
crimes being committed around our country. We now have things as simple as computers or as
complicating as DNA sequencing. These things may seem like voodoo to someone living in the
1600s. I will discuss the evolution of law enforcement dating back to the beginning while also
explaining the impact of technology in law enforcement.
The technology used by Americas first system of law enforcement was fairly simple as
you would expect. It was initially ran by a combination of obligatory and voluntary
participation, in the 17th century The Watch as it was called typically reported fires,
maintained order in the streets, raised the hue and cry which is pursuing criminals while
yelling loudly to raise alarm. (Johnson 1981) The early policing system was modeled after the
English structure, which incorporated the watch, constables, and sheriffs in a community-based
police organization.(Johnson 1981) This also usually meant the watch responded to criminal
behavior only when requested by victims or witnesses. With monetary incentive in certain
places, apprehending criminals was not always their first priority. (Johnson 1981)

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In the 1700s more people were settling in towns and building shops and business. This
meant there would be more people and more problems. Police work then became more time
consuming which had an effect on how many people wanted to volunteer for The Watch. This
forced towns and cities to institute a paid watch. (Johnson) In 1749 the city of Philadelphia
passed a law that changed the watch to tackle the problems of men not volunteering. The law
ultimately enforced a tax to pay the watch. The watch was now for men interested in the
particular job and did not force men to perform these duties. This was not the ultimate solution,
but definitely helped push things in the right direction. (Johnson 1981)
The solution for the rise in population in the eastern states was a new and improved law
enforcement system which was first used by England in 1829. This type of law enforcement was
more of a preventative police force which is designed to deter crime from happening rather than
reacting to it once it has happened. (Johnson 1981) The year 1833, Philadelphia implemented a
24-hour police force. Boston and New York soon followed in the coming years. This new
system was not perfect, but it closely resembles a modern day police force. (Johnson 1981) The
history of law enforcement seems like a fairly simple one, but there was much more happening
during these times than just what I mentioned above. Technology was advancing during all of
this. I will take some time to talk about some of the advances during the earlier days of law
enforcement and also during the more recent times.
The early police had little technology as mentioned earlier. As terms of technology some
were outfitted with a truncheon or baton and a rattle for raising alarm similar to the hue and
cry method used by volunteers in the beginning. (Johnson 1981; Manwaring White 1983) These
officers were mostly on their own when leaving the police station mainly because the
technologies of the time did not allow for communication between the officers. As a result,

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officers were not aware of criminal activity unless a citizen was ambitious enough to walk to the
police station or happened to live near enough to relay the message. (Johnson 1981)
While only being armed with nightsticks early on the adoption of firearms in the police
force was met with strong opposition. This was a tough issue in terms of power of the state to
arm their police against the people. The public was against arming the police as well, but this
was also during the formation of the United States where many citizens were carrying firearms
which resulted in conflicts between citizens to the point of shots being regularly exchanged.
(Johnson 1981) Police were in charge of resolving conflicts, but without a weapon they were
often shot while on duty. This led to officers informally carrying a firearm even though they had
orders to refrain from carrying one. This practice eventually became institutionalized. (Johnson
1981) The first agency to adopt a multi-shot pistol was the Texas Rangers in the 1850s with the
rest of the nation following shortly after. (NCJ 1998)
The Republic of Texas was one of the earliest customers of Samuel Colt who was a New
England gun maker. He was the inventor of a .36 caliber five-shot revolver the Texas Rangers
used. This gun made it possible so the Rangers no longer had to pause in battle to reload which
was a huge advantage. (Texas Rangers) This revolver led to the invention of a pistol used in 1846
during the Mexican American War. The gun weighed a whopping 4.5 pounds and was called the
Walker Colt. This was the largest and most powerful black powder repeating handgun ever
made. (Texas Ranges) Once weapons were adopted in law enforcement there were many
advancements made by gun makers to make their duties easier.
From the late 19th century and on there were important advances in communications
technology which begin being used by the police. The first telephones were installed in Albany,
New York in 1877. These were used to connect five districts to the mayors office. (Stewart

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1994) This was a huge breakthrough for communications technology. Communication is
definitely one of the most important aspects of law enforcement. Chicago and Boston had one of
these call boxes installed in 1884 with other police agencies using these exclusively during the
1890s. (Stewart 1994) Police call boxes were placed strategically throughout police officers
routes and they served as a line of communication back to the station. The citizens could also
use these boxes to alert officers of an issue. There were lights on top of the boxes that could be
turned on to alert officers that the office needed to contact them, or citizens could turn on the
light to signal for help. This allowed officers to see these lights from a distance knowing which
location needed their assistance. The police call box was eventually phased out by the
widespread use of the radio and telephone (Stewart 1994)
Around 1920 the foot patrol method of policing was just not working anymore. The
increase in the size of residential areas in large cities was beginning to strain the police force to
the point where foot patrols were just not as cost effective. (Waltman 1958) This required a new
approach to policing. During this time police forces developed rapid-response methods with the
aid of the telephone, two-way radio, and automobile. The first radio patrol car was used in
Detroit as early as 1929. (NCJ 1998; Reiss 1992) The use of the automobile and two-way radio
made the police force more efficient, effective, and responsive. (Johnson 1981) However, the
advancement of these type of technologies go both ways. This also enabled criminals to have
access to automobiles which allowed them to travel longer distances after certain wrong doings.
A good example of criminals using cars for their advantage is the stories of John Dillinger and
his gang robbing banks. Communication advancements and the advancement of automobiles

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Communication advancements and the advancement of automobiles made a huge
difference in law enforcement and shapes how police departments still function today.
Fingerprint technology today is a large part of what law enforcement does today. The
Indian Evidence Act passed in 1899 was the first endorsement of fingerprints as legal evidence.
This was used not only used for identifying criminals, but also for finding or convicting them.
The original use of fingerprints was for a record-keeping system rather than a forensic tool. At
the time fingerprints were used as evidence, courts were hesitant to trust the evidence, but as the
technology evolved, fingerprinting became the primary means for identifying criminals. (Cole
2001)
By the 1930s, the FBI had amassed a large volume of fingerprints hence becoming more
difficult to access all of these records when needed. To tackle this problem identification bureaus
began using automated data processing technologies such as IBM punch card sorters to handle
the extremely large volume of prints. The IBM card sorters still required human examination of
the selected cards, though they did represent a leap in technologies of data management. This of
course would all change during the digital age. (Cole 2001)
Law enforcement today has been shaped by all of the technological advancements that
begin as early as the 1600s. Police departments now have large data bases stored on many hard
drives at their disposal. Accessing data today is so much easier than it was in the 1930s or even
the 1990s. Overall, we can look back at all of the advancements made throughout law
enforcement history and try to understand how technology has made law enforcement more
effective, but also has helped criminals more efficient at what they do as well.

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Works Cited
Cole, Simon A. 2001. Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal
Identification. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Johnson, David R. 1981. American Law Enforcement: A History. Forum Press: Saint Louis.
Manwaring-White, Sarah. 1983. The Policing Revolution: Police Technology, Democracy and
Liberty in Britain. Harvester Press, Brighton.
NCJ. 1998. Evolution and Development of Police Technology. NCJ 173179.
Stewart, R. W. 1994. The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History. Engineering Science and
Education Journal 3(4): 161-168.
Texas Rangers United States History, n.d. Web. 15 December 2015.
Walton, Frank E. 1958. 'Selective Distribution' of police patrol force, history, current practices,
recommendations. The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 49(2): 165171.