The Guardians of Justice

“The job of the police cannot be done in a free society if the people can see what the police sometimes have to do to maintain order.” Egon Bittner Long before anyone ever heard about “Community Oriented Policing,” law enforcement officers were of a different breed. They didn’t engage in complex “Problem Solving,” they simply identified the individual responsible for the problem and took action, sometimes brutal action, to fix it. They saw themselves as warriors on crime and protectors of their communities. Criminal perpetrators were the enemy, a threat to public safety and a plague on innocent law-abiding citizens. The professional law enforcement officer prowled the streets seeking out criminal prey and provided an authoritarian omni-presence that deterred criminal behavior. Read more