Pick-pocketing 101

A photograph of a police man on a horse during the 19th century

With the exponentially growing population of Manhattan, violence was the direct effect which rose from the poor neighborhoods of the 19th century. With a city with poor protection, surrounding people began to worry about the growing number of thieves running around the streets. The city’s first sign of a police force was a rather weak one, with workers in uniforms showing up often drunk for their shifts. Even with the development of the police, crimes still sky-rocketed due to the failure of the system. The “invention” of the police organization was a very significant start for things to follow because it was the beginning of the ladder that led to development of a more efficient system with workers who actually did their job. It raised awareness to crimes in poor neighborhoods and called for the participation from people of the city. These criminals rose due to the social inconveniences they were facing and due to the inadequate distribution of wealth during the Industrial Era.

Everyone was effected by this change. Before the police had formed, there were numerous outbreaks of fights and riots and acts of arson throughout the city. There was no way for the city to control what was going on until it decided to higher people who would take on the duty of patrolling the city. But even then, the ratio of thieves exceeds that of the police and so it became a next to impossible for the force. Johnson describes in his  introduction of “Policing the Underworld” the relationship between the police and the criminals as well as the reasons as to why police during that time took the measures to prevent criminal behavior. This growing population of criminals of many varieties was especially a threat to the upper-class because they were the ones being targeted by the wandering thieves.