2018年6月大学英语六级听力常考时文：Police and Communities

英语自学网

　　1.Who developed most of the early academic interests? Some ...
        　　2.How did party regulars and reformers generally view the police? They
viewed the police from ...
        　　3.When was the notion of a professional police force in America
created?...
        　　Few institutions are more important to an urban community than its police,
yet there are few subjects historians know so little about. Most of the early
academic interests developed among political scientists and sociologists, who
usually examined their own contemporary problems with only a nod toward the
past. Even the public seemed concerned only during crime waves, periods of
blatant corruption, or after a particularly grisly episode. Party regulars and
reformers generally viewed the institution from a political perspective;
newspapers and magazines — the nineteenth century’s media — emphasized the vivid
and spectacular. Yet urban society has always vested a wide, indeed awesome,
responsibility in its police. Not only were they to maintain order, prevent
crime, and protect life and property, but historically they were also to fight
fires, suppress vice, assist in health services, supervise elections, direct
traffic, inspect buildings, and locate truants and runaways. In addition, it was
assumed that the police were the special guardians of the citizens’liberties and
the community’s tranquility. Of course, the performance never matched
expectations. The record contains some success, but mostly failure; some
effective leadership, but largely official incompetence and betrayal. The notion
of a professional police force in America is a creation of the twentieth
century; not until our own time have cities begun to take the steps necessary to
produce modern departments.