ABSTRACT
Sometimes a history is nothing more than a story of places, people, and events. Ideally, however, history provides a background and understanding of the present; it should provide a backdrop or a context by which to better understand current affairs. As Victor G. Strecher (2006:66) noted, “…our understanding of the present … is little more than an elusive knife-edge between the past and future, or in a practical sense, a thin, recent slice of the past.” By trying to understand the past, it is possible to better comprehend present, and possibly future, events. To some extent, the present and future are direct results of the past; hence, it is important for the student of policing to study and understand
n Labor riots
n Leges Henrici
n Legions
n Lipit-Ishtar Code
n London Metropolitan Police
n Magna Carta
n Metropolitan Police Act
n Mesopotamia
n Municipal Corporations Act
n Night watches
n Peelian reform
n Pendleton Act
n Police state
n Polis
n Political entrenchment
n Praetorian Guard
n Problemoriented policing
n Professionalism
n Reform efforts
n Riots and strikes
n Roman Empire
n Science and technology
n Shire reeve
n Slave patrols
n Social differentiation
n Specialized police forces
n State as political organization
major events in the history of law enforcement and the social context in which they occurred.
