Historically, law enforcement was founded on the need to ensure citizens’ safety, possession, and health and to safeguard the people from civil disorder and crime. As such, Harris (2020) shows that law enforcement’s lawful powers included using force legitimized by the government or arrests through a monopoly on violence. In its primitive system, law enforcement clan members banded together to enforce rules of the group on rogue members. The purpose behind enforcing societal directives, conducting human control, and empowering authoritative enforcement of those rules was to safeguard the people from rogue members.
The community believed that any form of violence against any of them was tantamount to an attack on the rest (Harris, 2020). Therefore, to achieve its purpose, early law enforcement employed three fundamental features, no coercion, law enforcement had a wide array of tasks. The third feature was a critical distinction between the people legally endowed with policing responsibilities and those who carried out policing duties.
Peace offices have the mandate of ensuring that whether on or off duty, they shall not commit any crime knowingly under the country’s laws. In the U.S., for example, peace officers are bound by local and state jurisdiction not to commit a crime. The other responsibilities of the peace officer are to not knowingly disobey the rule of law on criminal procedures, especially in such areas as detention, arrests, evidence preservation, and the use of informants (Schroeder & Lombardo, 2018). Further, no peace officer shall exceed their authority when enforcing the law, and no individual freedom shall be restricted by peace officers (Schroeder & Lombardo, 2018). Only except the law is police officers allowed to disobey the rule of law relative to the criminal procedures.