August Vollmer Impact On Policing

August Vollmer was the “father of American police professionalism” (Walker & Katz, 2012, p. 36). He served as chief of police in Berkeley, California from 1905 – 1932, and served as a consultant for police departments around the country. He influenced many more reforms in policing than any other person, and his reforms continue to reform policing today (Walker & Katz, 2012, p. 36). Vollmer believed that there needed to be a reform of policing due to perceived corrupt police agencies and the failure of the police to enforce the laws (Law.jrank.org, n.d.). Some of the reforms that he implemented included hiring college graduates for policing, and he offered the first college course in police science at the University of California (Law.jrank.org, n.d.). Vollmer is also known for the developing the principles police administration that are still used in police agencies today. These principles sought to centralize the authority within police departments (Law.jrank.org, n.d.). In 1924 Vollmer reorganized the Los Angeles Police Department. There he established police hiring standards and set up a crime lab, a records bureau, and a prevention unit concerned with juvenile delinquency (Fisher, 2008). He formed a vice squad and developed the minimum-security prison …show more content…
Many colleges and universities offer criminal justice programs and classes. Vollmer felt that there should be a way to find capable, hardworking, well-educated men to fill the positions of police officers (Fisher, 2008). This was part of the drive that he had to teach and develop programs of study at colleges and universities across the country (Fisher, 2008). The legacy left by August Vollmer is that criminal justice educators understand that they are role models who will encourage and guide the next generation of scholars who will be responsible for ethical criminal justice research (Bond,