Today, many Americans are demanding significant reform of police departments (and the justice system) across the country after a recent series of fatal shootings, primarily of unarmed African-American youths and men, as well as a long history of conflict and violent confrontation with people of color. This course will examine the history of Western policing beginning with the significant influence of the English police system begun in 1829 in London. We will examine how policing has progressed and changed over time. The instructor will discuss the concept of community policing and whether American policing has failed to implement this founding principle successfully. Police reform, undertaken in the 1970s, was the basis for much of modern professionalism, though, today, police militarization is an unacceptable public safety strategy or practice. We will conclude this course with the introduction of the exemplary peace officer concept and the phenomenon of implicit bias in policing and its potential harmful impact on communities.
Course Code
500805