To Serve And Protect The History Of Policing

"To Protect and To Serve: A History of Police in America" fills a void in both criminal justice and historical scholarship regarding the history and development of American police. The leaders, the organizational strategies, and the community problems that created the need for police departments are presented in an insightful and readable format that will appeal to students and scholars alike. "To Protect and To Serve" explores the influence of slave patrols, corruption by political machines, urbanization, and the desire for reform and professionalism in America's police departments. The authors bring together the fields of criminal justice and hitsory, as well as the roles of practitioner and scholar, to create a fascinating survey of the evolution of police in American society. -- From publisher's description.

The massive uprising following the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020--by some estimates the largest protests in US history--thrust the argument to defund the police to the forefront of international politics. It also made The End of Policing a bestseller and Alex Vitale, its author, a leading figure in the urgent public discussion over police and racial justice. As the writer Rachel Kushner put it in an article called "Things I Can't Live Without", this book explains that "unfortunately, no increased diversity on police forces, nor body cameras, nor better training, has made any seeming difference" in reducing police killings and abuse. "We need to restructure our society and put resources into communities themselves, an argument Alex Vitale makes very persuasively." The problem, Vitale demonstrates, is policing itself-the dramatic expansion of the police role over the last forty years. Drawing on first-hand research from across the globe, The End of Policing describes how the implementation of alternatives to policing, like drug legalization, regulation, and harm reduction instead of the policing of drugs, has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice. This edition includes a new introduction that takes stock of the renewed movement to challenge police impunity and shows how we move forward, evaluating protest, policy, and the political situation.

In his provocative analysis, Benson (economics, Florida State U.; The Independent Institute, Oakland, CA) argues for contracting out and other controversial "private justice" options as preferable to government's pervasive and misguided criminal justice role. "Why the timing may be right" is the theme of the preface by Marvin Wolfgang, Director of the U. of Pennsylvania's Sellin Center for Studies in Criminology and Criminal Law. The Austrian School of the series title favors less government economic control. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The police in America belong to the people -- not the other way around. Yet millions of Americans experience their cops as racist, brutal, and trigger-happy: an overly aggressive, militarized enemy of the people. For their part, today's officers feel they are under siege -- misunderstood, unfairly criticized, and scapegoated for society's ills. Is there a fix? Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper believes there is. Policing is in crisis. The last decade has witnessed a vast increase in police aggression, misconduct, and militarization, along with a corresponding reduction in transparency and accountability. It is not just noticeable in African American and other minority communities -- where there have been a series of high-profile tragedies -- but in towns and cities across the country. Racism -- from raw, individualized versions to insidious systemic examples -- appears to be on the rise in our police departments. Overall, our police officers have grown more and more alienated from the people they've been hired to serve. In To Protect and Serve, Stamper delivers a revolutionary new model for American law enforcement: the community-based police department. It calls for fundamental changes in the federal government's role in local policing as well as citizen participation in all aspects of police operations: policymaking, program development, crime fighting and service delivery, entry-level and ongoing education and training, oversight of police conduct, and -- especially relevant to today's challenges -- joint community-police crisis management. Nothing will ever change until the system itself is radically restructured, and here Stamper shows us how.

Essays and reports examining the reality of police violence against Black and brown communities in America. What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young Black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness? This collection of reports and essays (the first collaboration between Truthout and Haymarket Books) explores police violence against Black, brown, indigenous, and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. It also makes a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police. Contributions cover a broad range of issues including the killing by police of Black men and women, police violence against Latino and indigenous communities, law enforcement’s treatment of pregnant people and those with mental illness, and the impact of racist police violence on parenting. There are also specific stories such as a Detroit police conspiracy to slap murder convictions on young Black men using police informant, and the failure of Chicago’s much-touted Independent Police Review Authority, the body supposedly responsible for investigating police misconduct. The title Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is no mere provocation: the book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe. Contributors include William C. Anderson, Candice Bernd, Aaron Cantú, Thandi Chimurenga, Ejeris Dixon, Adam Hudson, Victoria Law, Mike Ludwig, Sarah Macaraeg, and Roberto Rodriguez. Praise for Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? “With heartbreaking, glass-sharp prose, the book catalogs the abuse and destruction of Black, native, and trans bodies. And then, most importantly, it offers real-world solutions.” —Chicago Review of Books “A must-read for anyone seeking to understand American culture in the present day.” —Xica Nation “This brilliant collection of essays, written by activists, journalists, community organizers and survivors of state violence, urgently confronts the criminalization, police violence and anti-Black racism that is plaguing urban communities. It is one of the most important books to emerge about these critical issues: passionately written with a keen eye towards building a world free of the cruelty and violence of the carceral state.” —Beth Richie, author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation

This book provides knowledge on the history of law enforcement and its development and explains the factors leading to the evolution of the modern police officer. The first chapter provides information about the book’s purpose and methods of data collection and analysis. The next two chapters summarize ancient forms of law enforcement in Europe and the Middle East. Chapters Four through Ten describe the eras of American history from the early settlements to the modern metropolitan areas and how law enforcement evolved to serve and protect through these eras. Chapters Eleven and Twelve explain the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and how this legislation affected law enforcement through increased availability of equipment and opportunities for education for all personnel in the criminal justice system. Chapters Thirteen through Fifteen describe specific problems that have developed throughout modern American society and how law enforcement has responded to these problems. Chapter Sixteen summarizes the evolution of police technology and how it affects the most visible member of policing: the patrol officer. Chapter Seventeen reviews the recent criticism and politicization of law enforcement. The final chapter provides conclusions that can be reached about the past and recommendations for improvement in the future. Whether the reader is a college student preparing to enter a career in criminal justice or a seasoned professional, this book will help avoid systemic mistakes of the past. For politicians, journalists, educators, and other people whose professions take them close to law enforcement personnel, this book will explain the evolution of those who have chosen to serve and protect and how they have gone from captured slaves to caring professionals.