[2] Policing has included an array of activities in different contexts, but the predominant ones are concerned with the preservation of order and the provision of services.
In the United Kingdom in the late 18th century: The modern police department was born out of...the desire of the wealthy to restructure ... society.
The swelling population of urban poor, whose miniscule [sic] wages could hardly sustain them, heightened the need for police protection.
Its primary function was serving as the enforcement arm of the reigning political power, protecting property, and keeping control of the ever increasing numbers of foreign immigrants[citation needed]In 1690 John Locke[6] wrote that: The great and chief end ... of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their propertySimilarly, Adam Smith[7] described how: ... as the necessity of civil government gradually grows up with the acquisition of valuable property, so the principal causes which naturally introduce subordination gradually grow up with the growth of that valuable property ...
They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.Considering the state of law enforcement and society in 2013, Dr. Gary Potter[10] states, As we look to the 21st century, it now appears likely that a new emphasis on science and technology, particularly related to citizen surveillance; a new wave of militarization reflected in the spread of SWAT teams and other paramilitary squads; and a new emphasis on community pacification through community policing, are all destined to replay the failures of history as the policies of the future.