To Serve And Protect

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

To Serve and Protect: Communicating in Law Enforcement in Canada is a student-focused writing guide. It is designed for use by students new to law enforcement training as well as practicing officers undergoing communications training who might benefit from a concise guide to writing on the job for their profession.

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

A small town cop with an unexpected gift A shadowy government agency on the side of justice A call no good man could turn away When vampires attack David White’s small town, only luck, firepower, and the intervention of an elite government task force save his life. The aftermath of the attack leaves him in the middle of the world’s biggest secret: the existence of government agencies that regulate the supernatural. They insist that David’s “luck” is actually a supernatural gift, and he’s immediately recruited into ONSET, the most shadowy part of America’s thin blue line of police protectors. Questioning both his gifts and the agency he now serves, David is drawn into an escalating battle that threatens all of humanity. If he isn’t what ONSET thinks he is, the entire world may pay the price.

Who polices immigration? : establishing the role of state and local law enforcement agencies in immigration control -- Setting up the local deportation regime -- Policing immigrant Nashville -- The driving to deportation pipeline -- Inside the jail -- Lost in translation : two worlds of immigration policing

It provides the first comprehensive assessment of the role of the police in homeland security functions, the effectiveness of strategies, the impacts of homeland security threats on police organization, and on the relationships between police and community. The book's authors include some of the best known scholars in policing and in the area of policing terrorism brought together by the National Institute of Justice and the Ministry of Public Security in Israel to provide cutting edge discussion of the challenges presented by terrorism for police in democratic societies. Each chapter includes not only an up to date survey of the literature in the areas covered, but also a discussion what we need to know to develop better policies and practices.

This collection of essays on policing and the use of force, while written over the course of the last twenty-five years, remains relevant and timely. Although issues in policing and questions about excessive force and brutality have been addressed by criminologists, sociologists, philosophers, and criminal justice ethicists, only a handful of theological ethicists treat this pressing matter. While the Christian moral tradition has a voluminous record of theological attention to violence and nonviolence, war and peace, there is a dearth of references to policing. And most considerations of criminal justice issues by Christians and their churches concentrate on prison reform, or abolition, and the death penalty, but not policing. These essays, authored by a theological ethicist possessing professional experience in law enforcement, seek to fill this curious gap. They offer a framework for moral reasoning concerning the justification for police use of force and the just application of such force, and they propose just policing as a model that is consonant with promoting a just peace in communities and society. In addition, they explore the implications of such an approach for wider, international questions about just war, terrorism, the responsibility to protect, and post-war justice.