Historical Developments in Policing and the Practice of Interrogation
The opening chapter examines the history of civilian policing and the implications this history has for the emergence, development, and current practice of police interrogation in the United States. In particular, the authors emphasize the political nature of early-twentieth-century policing and the related coercive interrogation tactics, which led to backlash from legal investigations, journalists, courts, and law enforcement officers who were reformers. In response to these critiques, policing separated from political patronage, established academies and other educational requirements, and replaced coercive interrogation tactics with deception. The chapter closes with contemporary pressures for reform and comparisons of current reforms with earlier changes in interrogation practice.