In the United States of America, there are many unique and historic police station buildings that have been preserved. These historic police stations served their police departments very well for many years, but because of age, growing size of the police departments, and/or efficiency of the design of the buildings, many of them have ceased to be used as police stations.
Although it might seem like law enforcement departments have been around since the very beginning of our country, colonial America had very primitive police forces, if they had them at all.[1] In the early 1700s, big cities like Boston were the most likely to have police, and these police officers usually functioned as night watchmen, to protect the community from drunken violence and to stop prostitution or gambling.
Although everyone understands the obvious danger that fighting fires involves, not all people may realize that firefighters also risk getting cancer or other debilitating diseases from exposure to carcinogens. One case that has brought this issue to the general public’s mind is the controversy over funding for the first responders who were on site during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.