Police in America have always been the tool and enforcer of social order. In the pre-revolution north, the night watch is seen as a predecessor to the police, however the watch was a purely reactive institution, mostly served as warnings of danger and was not effective at stopping crime. In the southern slave owning states, the slave patrol system was created and funded by wealthy slave owners and its responsibility was to catch runaway slaves as well as deter slaves from escaping or rebelling. However, the first true American police force was established in the 1830's in Boston and quickly spread to other industrial cities in the northern United States. These organized police forces were not created as a response to a rise in crime but rather a rise in social “disorder”. As more people of color and european immigrants moved into these cities, the established Angelo-Saxon, white Americans clashed with their new diverse neighbors. The police were also a tool of the established business class that was used to protect their property without the businessmen needing to pay for protection of property themselves. As industrialization went on more and more workers began striking and demanding better pay and conditions and the police served as strike-breakers, destroying American labor movements with force. The justification for this was that the strikers were upsetting the social order. These practices furthered the alliance between the police and the business class against the "dangerous masses” of industrial cities. Many of these masses were immigrants and people of color while all of the businessmen they were against were more established whites in America.

 

By the 1960's generational impoverishment of many American communities, (mostly communities of color) alongside the civil rights movement and a rise in ethic tension in the country led to a feeling of lawlessness amongst America's elite. Two practices were implemented in response, the war on crime and the professionalization of the police force. The American police force in response to the perceived crime attempted to become more professional and more like the military that was fighting in Vietnam. This professionalization, however, militarized the police, causing distrust to build within communities, resulting in further detachment from the society they were meant to maintain order in. The so-called war on crime went alongside this professionalization and equipped American police officers with military grade weapons and other tools of repression. This funding came out of social programs in already underfunded and disenfranchised areas which resulted in an increase of almost every type of crime immediately after its implementation.

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As professor of justice studies, Dr. Gary Potter put it “From the beginning American policing has been intimately tied not to the problem of crime, but to exigencies and demands of the American political-economy. From the anti-immigrant bashing of early police forces, to the strike breaking of the later 1800s, to the massive corruption of the early 20th century, through professionalism and now attempts at amelioration through community policing, the role of the police in the United States has been defined by economics and politics, not crime or crime control. As we look to the 21st century, it now appears likely that a new emphasis on science and technology, particularly related to citizen surveillance; a new wave of militarization reflected in the spread of SWAT teams and other paramilitary squads; and a new emphasis on community pacification through community policing, are all destined to replay the failures of history as the policies of the future.”