Policing Boston: A History

16:05

May 01, 2013

Members of a police SWAT team hold rifles while standing next to an armored vehicle outside an entrance to a memorial service for fallen Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Collier was fatally shot on the MIT campus Thursday, April 18, 2013. Authorities allege that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were responsible. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The manhunt that eventually led to the arrest of one of the suspected Boston marathon bombers involved massive coordination between local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Some historians look upon the Watertown operation as another chapter in the long evolution of law enforcement in America... an evolution that has had many such important chapters take place right here in Boston.

From the presence of British soldiers on Boston streets prior to the American Revolution, to citywide reaction to 19th century fugitive slave laws, to labor strikes, bussing, through the wars on drugs and terror.

Guests

Radley Balko, senior writer and investigative reporter for the Huffington Post. His new book is Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces. His Huffington Post series on police in Boston is here.

This segment aired on May 1, 2013.