THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN POLICING BORN FROM SLAVE PATROLS American policing did not begin as public protection. It began as control. Long before modern police departments existed, colonial governments created slave patrols armed groups legally authorized to track, terrorize, and discipline enslaved Black people. They enforced curfews. They broke up gatherings. They searched homes without warrants. They used violence as policy. After slavery ended in 1865, the system did not disappear. It was rena