their superiors and almost unlimited discretion when it came to deciding who to arrest. This situation was clearly untenable, and led to widespread corruption and abuses of power. Society reacted strongly to this perceived corruption among police officers, and in the middle of the 20th century policing entered into the reform era (Chappell).
The reform era was characterized by bureaucratic police departments with legalistic organizational structures. These departments featured strict procedures and policies that were designed to limit individual police officer discretion and to enhance supervision of police officers in the field by their superior officers. Technological advancements helped spur this era by placing radios, and eventually computers, in police cars allowing officers to be dispatched to crime scenes efficiently. However, by putting officers in cars these reforms eroded the officersÆ relationship with the community. Police officers no longer walked their beats and instead policed their communities from a distance, arriving only when called to the scene of a crime. This distance from the community created significant problems, especially in the inner cities where minorities often came to view police officers as their enemies since they only ever arrived when things had already gotten out of hand. This led to several sensational riots which were spurred by racial conflict. This growing tension between police departments and the communities they served spurred police departments to focus more on community reach out, leading to the third era of 20th century policingùthe community era of policing (Chappell).
We are currently transitioning from the reform era to the community era of policing. This has resulted in increasing numbers of police officers being taken out of their police cars and put back into walking beats within their communities. Indeed, by 1997 most police departments in cities had officers...