Formal police departments emerge
In Boston, the night watchman carried a badge by 1796, as well as a six-foot pole with a hook on one end to facilitate grabbing miscreants. The other end was intended to be used as a defensive weapon. A force of six officers organized as the day police in 1838, supervised by the City Marshal, and had no connection whatever with the night watch. The Boston General Court began exploring the means to fund a full-time police force.
In 1854, the Boston Police Department was formally created, disbanding the night watchmen and the six-foot watchpole was replaced with a fourteen-inch long cudgel which soon earned the name nightstick. The day police force was also disbanded, and the Boston Police Department was modeled after the London Metropolitan Police, using the theories and practices of Sir Robert Peel (the London Police were called Peelers in the street slang of that city).
The first Boston Police officer to lose his life in the line of duty was Ezekial Hodsdon, who attempted to stop a burglary in east Boston, struggled with the two criminals, and was shot in the head by one of the burglars, who then fled. The young officer was but 25 years old at the time of his murder, and had earned the sum of $2 per day for his service to the city of Boston. Two-night watchmen had been killed in the line of duty prior to formation of the Boston Police.
In New York, Peter Cooper created plans for a 1,200-man municipal police force in 1844, but quarrels between the Mayor’s office and the Common Council over which body would have the authority to appoint officers kept the force from being a reality until May, 1845. The Municipal Police plan divided the city into three districts. It was replaced by the Metropolitan Police in 1857, which covered Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Westchester County.
The New York Metropolitan Police found that their predecessors, the municipal force, were not happy with the idea of being disbanded and resisted for a time, giving New York two police forces which opposed each other when either attempted to serve warrants or arrest suspects. Several months of chaos climaxed when first there was a riot involving the police forces, and the following day a riot involving the citizenry which the Metropolitans failed to suppress.