The first policing organization was created in Egypt in about 3000 BC. The empire then was divided into 42 administrative jurisdictions; for each jurisdiction, the pharaoh appointed an official who was responsible for justice and security. He was assisted by a chief of police, who bore the title sab heri seker, or “chief of the hitters” (a body of men responsible for tax collecting, among other duties).
In the city-states of ancient Greece, policing duties were assigned to magistrates. Ten astynomoi were responsible for municipal upkeep and cleanliness in the city of Athensand the port of Piraeus; 10 agoranomoi kept order in the marketplace, and 10 other metronomoi ensured that honest measuring standards were respected; and the “Eleven” dealt with courts, prisons, and, more generally, criminal justice. In order to perform their duties, the magistrates depended in part on the military, which viewed itself as primarily responsible for the external security of the state. Hence, the magistrates had to rely to an even greater extent on a corps of 300 Scythian slaves purchased by the city after the Greco-Persian Wars. Lightly armed, the Scythian slaves were charged with maintaining peace and order in various public places and in public gatherings. Only occasionally did they assist the Eleven in their criminal justice duties.
However, the practice of recruiting police operatives from the lower classes – Police, body of officers representing the civil authority of government. Police typically are responsible for maintaining public order and safety, enforcing the law, and preventing, detecting, and investigating criminal activities. These functions are known as policing. Police are often also entrusted with various licensing and regulatory activities.
However, police scholars have criticized this popular understanding of the word police – that it refers to members of a public organization having the legal competence to maintain order and enforce the law – for two reasons. First, it defines police by their ends rather than by the specific means that they use to achieve their goals. Second, the variety of situations in which police are asked to intervene is much greater than law enforcement and order maintenance.
There is now a consensus among researchers, based on a definition first proposed by American sociologist Egon Bittner, that the common feature among all the different agencies engaged in policing is the legal competence to enforce coercive, nonnegotiable measures to resolve problematic situations. Such situations are characterized by two features: their potential for harm and the need to solve them urgently before they develop that potential.
Hence, the actual use of coercion or the threat of using it allows police to put a quick, non-negotiated, and conclusive end to problematic situations (e.g., keeping people away from the scene of a fire for their own protection and to allow firemen to do their job).
Today, I visited to the immigration police station Milan with my friend. However, I remained outside the station and he went into the office for his appointment.
At 10′, O’clock a Nigerian man appeared there and suddenly he started shouting at the staff, ten minutes of his non-stop shouting two police officers came outside and asked him regarding his creepy noise. He did not pay attention on those police officers, and kept making noise, one of the police officer tried his best to cope with the uncanny situation, but he failed. Nigerian man threw his bag in front of the office door, the next moment he started dancing there. One police officer wore disposable gloves, took his bag away, and dropped five yards next to the door.
This time the Nigerian man started hooting loudly there, both police officers tried their best to negotiate, but he was inclined to keep his bag back from where he has picked up. More or less sixty people were there observing this scene. Police officer wore again his gloves and brought his bag at the same place, and said, “Keep making noise”. He went off into the building with no extreme anger or plating. It was just a twenty-five minutes negotiation between them.
I recalled my memories of back hometown where police officers/constables beat innocent citizens without any charge sheet or without any crime. Even though they stop citizens randomly on roads or anywhere and beat brutally on spot. There, no one is allowed arguing in front of even any police constable, police officers are superior there. I salute to those Italian police officers who are more tolerated, professional, and down to earth. In addition, I salute to those Milan police officers to their professional approach.