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Review
| To Protect and To Serve: A History of Police in America, by Robert C. Wadman and William Thomas Allison. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 194 pages. $49.00, paper.
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| To Protect and To Serve fills a gap in the criminal justice literature, providing a concise chronological survey of American police history. Robert Wadman, a criminal justice professor, and William Allison, a historian, collaborated to produce an interdisciplinary study appropriate for undergraduate students of history, sociology, and criminal justice. Through their analytical narrative the authors display balance, highlighting positive aspects of police evolution, including a willingness to experiment and adapt, as well as negative features such as racism, corruption, and community detachment. The authors also succeed in connecting the past with the present, demonstrating how nineteenth century policing practices continue to influence relations between police and minority groups. The authors' central themes are organizational development, police theory, and regional evolution, and revolve around several interconnected ideas: 1) that policing in America has been largely reactive, with crisis forcing change, 2) that reform has marked American police history, spurred by professionalization and urbanization, and 3) that theories of policing have often grown from intellectual trends, providing innovations implemented by police departments in shifts in policing styles (pp. xi–xii). Additionally, the authors note the conservative nature of the police, who function as an organizational mechanism for sustaining the status quo. |
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These three themes are examined through nine chronologically organized chapters. The authors begin with the informal "watchman" system of colonial America, followed by the advent of organized police departments in the nineteenth century in response to the demands of urbanization. Focusing on regional developments, for example, subsequent chapters explore the South, where police forces evolved out of slave patrols, and the West, where vigilantes, private security agencies, and federal marshals enforced frontier justice as remote settlements transformed into urban communities. The book then covers the impact of industrialization, and the Progressive Era response to police problems, notably the advent of professionalization, with such reforms addressing police reactions to the challenges of the interwar years. The final chapter looks at policing after World War II, and in particular the advent of community policing theory. Through this organizational model the authors place police evolution in the context of developments in American history, thus providing perspective on the efficacy and merits of various policing systems. |
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As source material, the authors rely upon well known American historians such as Eric Foner and Kenneth Stampp for historical context; historians of crime and punishment, Roger Lane and Roger McGrath for regional crime studies; criminologists Jerome Skolnick and James Q. Wilson to provide differing policy perspectives; and on prominent police reformers who have used history to frame issues and suggest changes, like the English police pioneer, Robert Peel, and American reformer, August Vollmer. Through these sources, included in the footnotes and bibliography, the authors offer an interdisciplinary history, introducing students to the writings of prominent historians and criminal justice innovators. In setting forth the changes proposed by such innovators and instituted by police departments, the authors highlight one of the narrative's central themes: As the police evolved from amateurs to professionals, they became an insulated military-style organization, out of touch with the community, and viewed by inner city residents as an occupation force (pp. 141–145). And today, as police departments grapple with these issues, and criminal justice professionals debate the merits of community policing, other approaches have gained notice. These include Wilson and Kelling's "broken windows theory," which argues that minor nuisances left untended foster environments prone to serious crime. Here the authors note the mixed results of such "quality of life" policing in New York City, when the late nineties saw crime rates drop by 43%, while complaints of police brutality rose by 62% (p. 158). |
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This discussion of New York's crime rates at century's end leaves the reader wishing that some attention had been given to crime rates earlier in the book. While the authors address individual crime spikes, no discussion of overall crime rates is provided. A simple chart and a brief discussion of historical crime rates and their significance would have added perspective to the discussions of police efficacy in combating various crimes. Additionally, a treatment of the role of police in the nationwide "crime bust" of the mid-1990s, when crime rates dropped to their lowest levels in 30 years, would have augmented the book's conclusion. These observations aside, the book provides a useful teaching resource, offering an interdisciplinary study of the evolution of the American police within the context of American history. Given its historical perspective it also could serve as an excellent starting point for discussions on the merits of various policing methods. |
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| San Francisco State University |
Alexander L. Gerould |
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