Evolving Policing Styles in the United States: Balancing the State and Civil Society

• In Event: Police Organizational Culture and Change

Abstract

The dominant forms of policing in the United States changed dramatically over the past 150 years. Scholars have documented the events that led to the abrupt changes in policing styles; however, we lack a theoretical explanation that accounts for variations in styles. Using a theory of organizational evolution, I account for the observed changes in policing styles since 1860.
The forces that led to transformations between policing eras result from the inherent tensions between the state and civil society. Whereas politicians attempt to centralize power, capitalists wish to decentralize it. As elites vie for power and promote organizational forms that amplify the power on which they depend, the dominance of one type of elite creates crises of legitimacy. Over-centralized power leads to challenges to the hegemonic structure from within; Over-decentralized power weakens leads to external challenges. It has been during these periods of crises that policing styles changed as elite power relations cycle from being centralized to decentralized. Police, as agents on the fault line of the state and civil society, adapt to these changes with new policing philosophies, tactics and managerial styles. The current militarization of the police can be understood as the latest manifestation of this process.

Author

• James Hawdon, Virginia Tech