CJPS1

Sir Robert Peel's Policing Principles

In 1829, Sir Robert Peel established the London Metropolitan Police Force. He became known as the “Father

of Modern Policing,” and his commissioners established a list of policing principles that remain as crucial and

urgent today as they were two centuries ago. They contain three core ideas and nine principles.

1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of

legal punishment.

2. To recognize always that the power of the police to ful�ll their functions and duties is dependent

on public approval of their existence, actions and behavior, and on their ability to secure and maintain

public respect.

9 Policing Principles

(https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/)

(https://www.facebook.com/LawEnforcementAction) (https://www.twitter.com/PoliceForReform)

(https://www.instagram.com/leactionpartnership)

(http://blog.lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/) | 

(http://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/donate)

3. To recognize always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also

the securing of the willing cooperation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.

4. To recognize always that the extent to which the cooperation of the public can be secured

diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving

police objectives.

5. To seek and preserve public favor, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly

demonstrating absolute impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without

regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual

service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing,

by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humor, and by ready offering of individual sacri�ce in

protecting and preserving life.

6. To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be

insuf�cient to obtain public cooperation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to

restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any

particular occasion for achieving a police objective.

7. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that

the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the

public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the

interests of community welfare and existence.

8. To recognize always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain

from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of

authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.

9. To recognize always that the test of police ef�ciency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not

the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

 The goal is preventing crime, not catching criminals. If the police stop crime before it happens, we

don’t have to punish citizens or suppress their rights. An effective police department doesn’t have

high arrest stats; its community has low crime rates.

 The key to preventing crime is earning public support. Every community member must share the

responsibility of preventing crime, as if they were all volunteer members of the force. They will only

accept this responsibility if the community supports and trusts the police.

 The police earn public support by respecting community principles. Winning public approval

requires hard work to build reputation: enforcing the laws impartially, hiring of�cers who represent

and understand the community, and using force only as a last resort.

3 CORE IDEAS

Who We Are (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/about-us/who-we-are/)

Meet the Board of Directors (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/board/)

Meet the Staff (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/meet-the-staff/)

Mission & Vision (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/about-us/mission-and-vision/)

Annual Report (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/2020-annual-report/)

Form 990 (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2021-990-Web.pdf)

Contact Us (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/about-us/contact-us/)

ABOUT US

 

Police-Community Relations (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/our-issues/police-community-relations/)

Incarceration (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/our-issues/incarceration/)

Harm Reduction (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/our-issues/harm-reduction/)

Drug Policy (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/our-issues/drug-policy/)

Global Issues (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/our-issues/global-issues/)

LEAP Latin America (https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/latin-america/)

OUR ISSUES

The Law Enforcement Action Partnership is an international 501(c)(3) nonpro�t organization of criminal justice

professionals advocating for drug policy and criminal justice reforms that will make communities safer. LEAP will not

accept any contribution with conditions or restrictions that are inconsistent with or compromise our principles or that

require us to advance an agenda that is not our own.

(https://www.facebook.com/LawEnforcementAction) (https://www.twitter.com/PoliceForReform)

(https://www.twitter.com/PoliceForReform) (https://www.instagram.com/leactionpartnership)

(http://blog.lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/)

LEAP will not accept any contribution with conditions or restrictions that are inconsistent with or compromise

our principles or that require us to advance an agenda that is not our own.