[bcdtttt]

While some night watches were public safety distributed among community members, they were often there to protect the goods of merchants rather than protect the ordinary citizens of an area from petty crime. As merchants grew, and their goods became more valuable targets, the merchants would hire on guards, but saw the opportunity to turn the existing night watch systems in place to their favor, essentially insisting on distributing the cost of guarding their goods across the community.

I'm not saying the night watches didn't evolve into police departments, I'm saying the night watches were co-opted prior to them becoming uniformed departments.

And slave patrols led directly into being police departments in some parts of the US. I do not claim that's in the history of all depts, but across the south there are many cases of patrols becoming formalized into police departments.

[andrewla]

For the warehouse guards, to summarize, you're saying that night watchmen and city watchmen were de facto warehouse guards before the formation of professional police forces? That seems a far cry from "evolved out of warehouse guards". Police still put resources into protecting property, but this does not make them "warehouse guards" any more than resources put on petty crime make them "cutpurse chasers" unless you're just making rhetorical points.

For the slave patrol point, I would appreciate a single example of this phenomenon. Is it the claim that there exists at least one professional police force that was created to replace a "slave patrol", which previously performed some subset of the civil duties of police officers? I have not been able to find an example; can you point me to one?

[bcdtttt]

The establishment of the Charleston police department directly traces roots into slave patrols. The department was formed from city guard, who were used to round up spaces and put down slave revolts.

[sangnoir]

> For the slave patrol point, I would appreciate a single example of this phenomenon

Potter, Gary "The History of Policing in the United States"[1] references Platt, Tony, "Crime and Punishment in the United States: Immediate and Long-Term Reforms from a Marxist Perspective, Crime and Social Justice 18"

1. https://www.academia.edu/30504361/The_History_of_Policing_in...

[graemep]

Given the origin of modern police forces in the Met, the principles set down by Peel would indicate that the aim was to have a force that was backed by the public - "policing by consent".

One of their predecessor organisations was the Bow Street Runners which was set up by magistrates with the aim of providing a less corrupt system than that of "thief takers" and a more professional one than parish constables.

[adolph]

>>> That concept is from the mid 1800s. They evolved out of warehouse guards and slave patrols.

>> This is not accurate.

> I do not claim that's in the history of all depts, but across the south there are many cases of patrols becoming formalized into police departments.

What percentage of current police departments were conversions from slave patrols? What is the source of this data?

[WarOnPrivacy]

>> And slave patrols led directly into being police departments in some parts of the US.

> What is the source of this data?

https://duckduckgo.com/?hps=1&q=police+departments+were+conv...

[bcdtttt]

And did not mean to imply exclusively. Plenty of police departments don't have roots in slave patrols.