"The Police in America" provides a comprehensive introduction to the foundations of policing in the United States today. Descriptive and analytical, the text is designed to offer undergraduate students a balanced and up-to-date overview of who the police are and what they do, the problems they face, and the many reforms and innovations that have taken place in policing. Using timely articles and excerpts, the authors take readers beyond the headlines and statistics to present a comprehensive and contemporary overview of what it means to be a police officer.
Police in America provides students with a comprehensive and realistic introduction to modern policing in our society. Utilizing real-word examples grounded in evidence-based research, this easy-to-read, conversational text helps students think critically about the many misconceptions of police work and understand best practices in everyday policing. Respected scholar and author Steven G. Brandl draws from his experience in law enforcement to emphasize the positive aspects of policing without sugar-coating the controversies of police work. Brandl tackles important topics that center on one question: “What is good policing?” This includes discussions of discretion, police use of force, and tough ethical and moral dilemmas—giving students a deeper look into the complex issues of policing to help them think more broadly about its impact on society. Students will walk away from this text with a well-developed understanding of the complex role of police in our society, an appreciation of the challenges of policing, and an ability to differentiate fact from fiction relating to law enforcement.
Named one of the best nonfiction books of the year by The Washington Post “Tangled Up in Blue is a wonderfully insightful book that provides a lens to critically analyze urban policing and a road map for how our most dispossessed citizens may better relate to those sworn to protect and serve.” —The Washington Post “Remarkable . . . Brooks has produced an engaging page-turner that also outlines many broadly applicable lessons and sensible policy reforms.” —Foreign Affairs Journalist and law professor Rosa Brooks goes beyond the "blue wall of silence" in this radical inside examination of American policing In her forties, with two children, a spouse, a dog, a mortgage, and a full-time job as a tenured law professor at Georgetown University, Rosa Brooks decided to become a cop. A liberal academic and journalist with an enduring interest in law's troubled relationship with violence, Brooks wanted the kind of insider experience that would help her understand how police officers make sense of their world—and whether that world can be changed. In 2015, against the advice of everyone she knew, she applied to become a sworn, armed reserve police officer with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department. Then as now, police violence was constantly in the news. The Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum, protests wracked America's cities, and each day brought more stories of cruel, corrupt cops, police violence, and the racial disparities that mar our criminal justice system. Lines were being drawn, and people were taking sides. But as Brooks made her way through the police academy and began work as a patrol officer in the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods of the nation's capital, she found a reality far more complex than the headlines suggested. In Tangled Up in Blue, Brooks recounts her experiences inside the usually closed world of policing. From street shootings and domestic violence calls to the behind-the-scenes police work during Donald Trump's 2016 presidential inauguration, Brooks presents a revelatory account of what it's like inside the "blue wall of silence." She issues an urgent call for new laws and institutions, and argues that in a nation increasingly divided by race, class, ethnicity, geography, and ideology, a truly transformative approach to policing requires us to move beyond sound bites, slogans, and stereotypes. An explosive and groundbreaking investigation, Tangled Up in Blue complicates matters rather than simplifies them, and gives pause both to those who think police can do no wrong—and those who think they can do no right.
"Clear, concise, and filled with new materials, the book sets a high standard . . . Scholars in African American, police, and urban history will all be grateful for what is certain to become a fundamental work in their fields." —The Alabama Review "A balanced, perceptive, and readable study." —Kirkus Reviews " . . . easily read and interesting text . . . " —The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) "[This] readable book is bound to explode plenty of myths. . . . This is an important book that is long overdue." —Our Texas, The Spirit of African-American Heritage "There is no better time than now for this electrifying, clear, and much needed volume." —Robert B. Ingram, President, National Conference of Black Mayors "Black Police in America is the most comprehensive and best documented study that I have read on African Americans in law enforcement." —Nudie Eugene Williams, University of Arkansas "Full of fascinating stories and accounts of racism and heroism, as well as photos and charts, this volume fills a void in the study of the African-American experience." —South Carolina Historical Magazine ". . . a fresh and original study and an important contribution to the fields of African American and urban history and criminal justice." —The Journal of American History " . . . an accomplished and wide-ranging comparative analysis of the role of race in the development and operation of police departments in America's nineteenth- and twentieth-century cities." —The Journal of Southern History African Americans demanded "colored police for colored people" for over two centuries. Black Police in America traces the history of African Americans in policing, from the appointment of the first "free men of color" as slave patrollers in 19th-century New Orleans to the advent of black police chiefs in urban centers—and explains the impact of black police officers on race relations, law enforcement, and crime.
In the field of law enforcement in the United States, it is essential to know the contemporary problems being faced and combine that knowledge with empirical research and theoretical reasoning to arrive at best practices and an understanding of policing. Policing in America, Eighth Edition, provides a thorough analysis of the key issues in policing today, and offers an issues-oriented discussion focusing on critical concerns such as personnel systems, organization and management, operations, discretion, use of force, culture and behavior, ethics and deviance, civil liability, and police-community relations. A critical assessment of police history and the role politics played in the development of American police institutions is also addressed, as well as globalization, terrorism, and homeland security. This new edition not only offers updated research and examples, it also incorporates more ways for the reader to connect to the content through learning objectives, discussion questions, and "Myths and Realities of Policing" boxes. Video and Internet links provide additional coverage of important issues. With completely revised and updated chapters, Policing in America, Eighth Edition provides an up-to-date examination of what to expect as a police officer in America. In full color, including photographs and illustrations Video links provide additional coverage of topics discussed in the text Learning objectives, critical thinking questions, and review questions in every chapter help to reinforce key concepts Updated figures and “Myths and Realities of Policing boxes provide important context Includes all-new content, such as further coverage of violent crime reduction programs, gangs, and drug use Access to student and instructor ancillaries, including Self-Assessments, Case Studies, Test Bank, and PowerPoint Lecture Slides
Obscured from our view of slaves and masters in America is a critical third party: the state, with its coercive power. This book completes the grim picture of slavery by showing us the origins, the nature, and the extent of slave patrols in Virginia and the Carolinas from the late seventeenth century through the end of the Civil War. Here we see how the patrols, formed by county courts and state militias, were the closest enforcers of codes governing slaves throughout the South. Mining a variety of sources, Sally Hadden presents the views of both patrollers and slaves as she depicts the patrols, composed of "respectable" members of society as well as poor whites, often mounted and armed with whips and guns, exerting a brutal and archaic brand of racial control inextricably linked to post-Civil War vigilantism and the Ku Klux Klan. City councils also used patrollers before the war, and police forces afterward, to impose their version of race relations across the South, making the entire region, not just plantations, an armed camp where slave workers were controlled through terror and brutality.
This book provides a valuable addition to the policing literature by detailing the backgrounds and histories of seven important police leaders: Teddy Roosevelt, August Vollmer, O.W. Wilson, Penny Harrington, Bill Bratton, Chuck Ramsey, and Chris Magnus. Seven Highly Effective Police Leaders teaches important history, highlighting the impact on the evolution of American policing by academia and social science. Each historical biography demonstrates the importance of each leader’s decision-making and how it continues to shape the future of U.S. law enforcement. Readers are informed about each police leader’s background and how their leadership was shaped by the political and historical environments in which they led. The book is useful for educational courses in policing, American history, leadership, and strategic planning. Additionally, the general public will find this book insightful regarding contemporary mass social justice protests linked to the unique history of the United States.
Since its inception in 1865, the Detroit Police Department has been a trailblazer and pioneer in adopting revolutionary advances in law enforcement that are essential to policing today. The Detroit Police Department was among the first police departments to put its officers on bicycles and developed one of the earliest motorized forces using motorcycles, ultimately becoming the first department to utilize Harley Davidson motorcycles. Of its firsts, arguably the most important and synonymous with the city of Detroit being recognized as the "Automotive Capital of the World" is the department's deployment of its first patrol car in 1909. This photographic book highlights the Detroit Police Department's rich history, resplendent with groundbreaking advancements in the field of law enforcement. Over the years, many of the issues that proved challenging to large metropolitan cities, such as urban unrest, school busing, labor disputes, crime, and poverty, also produced challenges for the department. This book illustrates how the department met those challenges and continued to serves its community with the utmost professionalism, respect, and pride. The vision of the Detroit Police Department is "building a safer Detroit through community partnerships," a with the unquestioned dedication and hard work exhibited by Detroit's fi nest, this vision has become a reality.
