The Illusion of Security in Policing | TIME

IOver the past 10 years, headlines have been dominated by incidents of police violence, from the tragic murders of Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and, most recently, Sonya Massey, to the numerous protests that have followed. These events sparked a national debate about the role and history of policing in the United States. The history of policing in the United States is neither linear nor monolithic. Instead, it is fragmented and developed differently in various regions. But one aspect of its history stands out clearly: U.S. policing was not built on a desire for public safety, but rather on a desire to preserve power and the status quo.

Since its inception, policing in the US has been a colonial project, with international dimensions that connect directly to imperialism. Early colonial policing formations included slave patrols in the South and lookout policing groups in the North. Slave patrols emerged in the early 1700s, designed to enforce slavery and prevent enslaved people from rebelling or escaping. These patrols were authorized to use violence and terror to control black populations. In the North, the first surveillance systems began in the 1600s, focusing on protecting property and maintaining public order, which often meant safeguarding the interests of the rich and powerful. The Texas Rangers, founded in 1835, represent another early form of policing designed to maintain settler interests and suppress indigenous populations.

The rise of industrial capitalism in the 19th century brought new forms of policing, including the use of police to break strikes and repress labor organizing. The first major municipal police department was established in Boston in 1838, followed by New York City in 1845 and Chicago in 1851. These early police forces were employed to protect capital and maintain the status quo during periods of labor unrest, illustrating how policing has long had a tool of economic control. This trend continued into the 20th century, with the police frequently called in to suppress labor protests and strikes, resorting to violence and intimidation to suppress workers’ demands for better conditions and wages.

Resistance to police violence and crises of legitimacy have played significant roles in shaping the history of policing. And historically, the response to dissent against policing has been to strengthen policing and embed it more deeply into the social fabric of everyday life.

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Governments, the media, and major social institutions have socialized us to believe that the police are the only organization that can effectively provide public safety. This belief justifies the idea that the police need to maintain a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. For most of modern history, however, the police were not viewed this way. Instead, they were seen as a violent occupying force serving the interests of those in power. For communities targeted by police violence, the idea that the police were not created in the interests of safety is not surprising. The police are said to be the administrators of public safety, but across the country, policing emerged in the 17th century as a tool of racial and class domination and control. The era of police professionalization, which began in the early 1900s and sought to address widespread corruption and the problems of policing, transformed police practices but did not address the problems of policing: the police power itself. The police violence we see today is not a fluke or an aberration. The criminal legal system today is not broken; it is functioning exactly as it was designed: as a violent tool of racial and class control that protects very few.

In the mid-1900s, we saw significant investments and efforts by politicians and police leaders that set history on a course in which policing would increase in ways few could have predicted. President Lyndon B. Johnson war on crime it reinforced the public perception that local law enforcement was the only legitimate guardian of public safety. The Law Enforcement Assistance Act (LEAA) of 1965 created a stream of federal funding that expanded local law enforcement’s ability to acquire military-grade equipment and hire more officers. Over the years, billions of dollars have been funneled into local law enforcement, allowing police to acquire more technology and equipment for biased crime control and protest suppression efforts. Despite differences in policing models, the use of policing to control and punish marginalized communities has remained constant.

Internationally, U.S. policing methods have been exported to support colonial and imperial efforts seeking expand the empire. For example, during the Cold War, the U.S. trained police forces in allied countries to suppress communist movements and maintain control over colonized populations. This exchange of tactics between imperial armies and police forces highlights the interconnectedness of national and international control strategies. The use of counterinsurgency techniques, developed by military forces to manage colonized populations, has become a staple in American policing, particularly in managing protests and civil unrest.

Today, police and prison spending consumes hundreds of billions of dollars that could be spent on developing community infrastructure and non-punitive alternatives to prisons and policing. The criminal legal system, with its origins in racial and class control, evolved to maintain the same functions under the pretext of public security. The police violence we witness today is not an anomaly, but a continuation of a historical pattern designed to preserve power and control over marginalized communities.

In the 1960s, as political resistance grew, policing expanded. Policing violence was widespread and police used brutal tactics to suppress protests and maintain racial segregation and discrimination. During the civil rights movement, police violence gained national prominence, shocking the nation’s conscience and galvanizing support for the civil rights cause. Police deployed attack dogs, high-pressure water cannons and tear gas against protesters. These tactics were part of a broader strategy to repress activism and maintain racial segregation and discrimination. Police also imposed racial limits on parks, schools, transportation, swimming pools, and entire communities.

As policing expanded, law enforcement was given a great degree of freedom, allowing for the mass arrest and incarceration of black and increasingly Latino people, a legacy that continues today. The era of professionalization of policing that began in the early 20th century and the federal embalming of the 1960s with President Johnson’s war on crime began to change perceptions. This period marked the beginning of rebranding efforts — which some have coined as police propaganda, or “copaganda” – who positioned the police as deterrents of crime and administrators of public safety. These efforts, supported by federal funds, facilitated the rebranding of police from agents of marginalization and political control to supposed protectors of public safety. Police promises to expand the category deemed worthy of protection and the idea that the police are capable of reform have further altered perceptions. This expansion of policing and rebranding efforts into all areas of society has led to a shift in public perception, portraying the police as an essential element in preventing crime, rather than an instrument of social control.

Despite promises of reform, policing continues to focus on strengthening power structures. These power structures largely center on the accumulation of capital and profits, which have a history of organizing along racial lines. Understanding the origins and evolution of policing in the United States reveals its true purpose: to maintain social control and protect the interests of the powerful.

We must reimagine public safety in a way that does not rely on coercion and violence, but rather focuses on community-based solutions that address the root causes of harm and inequality. The rebranding efforts that have positioned the police as crime controllers and public safety stewards, along with their historical and contemporary role, underscore the need for a fundamental rethinking of public safety beyond policing.

Extracted from the book BEYOND POLICE by Philip V. McHarris. Copyright © 2024 by Philip V. McHarris. Reprinted with permission from Legacy Lit. All rights reserved.