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The City of Boston establishes a "night watch," in which officers served part-time, without pay.
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The United States Congress creates the first Federal law enforcement officer, the United States Marshal. Thirteen U.S. Marshals were appointed by President George Washington.
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Sheriff Cornelius Hogeboom of Hudson, New York, was shot as he attempted to serve a writ of ejectment becoming the first known law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of duty.
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The first professional police force in the UK, funded by local taxation, was set up in Glasgow in 1800.
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The first professional policemen, in England, known as 'Peelers' or 'Bobbies', were set up in London in 1829 by Robert Peel, the then Home Secretary, after 'The Metropolitan Police Act' of 1829.
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By September of 1829, the first Metropolitan Police were patrolling the streets of London. There were 17 divisions, which had 4 inspectors and 144 constables each. The force headquarters was Scotland Yard, and it answered to the Home Secretary.
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The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, allowed Borough Councils to organize a police force but few of them seemed eager to implement the law.
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Texas creates what was later to become the Texas Rangers, the oldest statewide law enforcement agency in America.
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The Rural Constabulary Act of 1839, allowed any of the 54 English Counties to raise and equip a paid police force. The Act permitted JPs to appoint Chief Constables, for the direction of the police in their areas and allowed for one policeman per 1,000 population.
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In the 1840s, there was still a great disparity between different areas of the country with no single style of policing. By 1840, only 108 out of 171 boroughs had police forces.
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In 1855, there were still only 12,000 policemen in England and Wales. This was despite the fact that the police force in London was proving effective in reducing crime and increasing detection.
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The City of Baltimore becomes the first police department to issue pistols to their officers.
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Police departments in Boston and Chicago issue uniforms to their officers.
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On the day he was shot by the assassin John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln approves the formation of what is now the United States Secret Service.
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Jacksonville, Florida, Officer William Johnson becomes the first African American police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
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Thomas J. Smith, of Abilene, Kansas, becomes the first of more than 585 Police Chiefs to die in the line of duty.
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Legendary Lawman Wyatt Earp, along with his brothers Virgil and Morgan and John Henry "Doc" Holliday, win the Wild West era's most famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
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City Health Dept. Inspector Marie Owens is appointed to the Chicago Police Department as a police officer assigned to the Detective Bureau, becoming the nation’s earliest-known female sworn law enforcement officer.
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The very first drunk driving arrest was on September 10 of 1897.
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Fingerprinting is first used in the United States by law enforcement.
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A total of 1,512 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 10 years, an average of one death every 63 hours or 151 per year. There were 143 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2016.