Policing the Racial Divide

Policing the Racial Divide
Author: Daanika Gordon
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2022-05-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1479814067

2023 Edwin H. Sutherland Book Award Winner A behind-the-scenes account of the harsh realities of policing in a segregated city For thirteen months, Daanika Gordon shadowed police officers in two districts in “River City,” a profoundly segregated rust belt metropolis. She found that officers in predominantly white neighborhoods provided responsive service and engaged in community problem-solving, while officers in predominantly Black communities reproduced long-standing patterns of over-policing and under-protection. Such differences have marked US policing throughout its history, but policies that were supposed to alleviate racial tensions in River City actually widened the racial divides. Policing the Racial Divide tells story of how race, despite the best intentions, often dominates the way policing unfolds in cities across America. Drawing on in-depth interviews and hundreds of hours of ethnographic observation, Gordon offers a behind-the-scenes account of how the police are reconfiguring segregated landscapes. She illuminates an underexplored source of racially disparate policing: the role of law enforcement in urban growth politics. Many postindustrial cities are increasing the divisions of segregation, Gordon argues, by investing in downtowns, gentrified neighborhoods, and entertainment corridors, while framing marginalized central city neighborhoods as sources of criminal and civic threat that must be contained and controlled. Gordon paints a sobering picture of modern-day segregation, and how the police enforce its racial borders, showing us two separate, unequal sides of the same city: one where rich, white neighborhoods are protected, and another where poor, Black neighborhoods are punished.

Urbanization, Policing, and Security

Urbanization, Policing, and Security
Author: Gary Cordner
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 475
Release: 2009-12-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1420085581

In terms of raw numbers, the amount of world urban dwellers have increased four-fold, skyrocketing from 740 million in 1950 to almost 3.3 billion in 2007. This ongoing urbanization will continue to create major security challenges in most countries. Based on contributions from academics and practitioners from countries as diverse as Nigeria, Pakist

Policing the Urban Underworld

Policing the Urban Underworld
Author: David R. Johnson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 262
Release: 1979
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

This book examines how criminals shaped police behavior in the nineteenth century. It is an attempt to understand how the theory of crime prevention worked in practice. In general, we will see that the theory was not a particularly effective guide to crime control because its advocates assumed an overly simplistic view of the relationship between policemen and criminals. More specifically, I will argue that various types of criminals had, and have, the ability to negate the theory's promises because of the underworld's complexity and growth in an urban setting. The primary focus of this book therefore is on the interaction between policemen and criminals rather than on reformers and policemen. We must consider the experience of the police in dealing with criminals if we are to obtain a full understanding of the reasons why our police behave as they do. - p. vii.

Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department

Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department
Author: Brenda J. Bond-Fortier
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2020-01-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317279360

This in-depth case study of a mid-sized police department captures the dynamics, struggles, and successes of police change, revealing the positive organizational and community outcomes that resulted from a persistent drive to reinvent public safety and community relationships. The police profession in the United States faces a legitimacy problem. It is critical that police are prepared to change constantly, be adaptive, and adopt openness to self-reflection and external comparison, moving beyond their comfort zone to overcome the inevitable cultural, structural, and political obstacles. Using previously unpublished longitudinal data examining a 25-year period, Bond-Fortier offers a rich account of the complexity of police management and change within one particular mid-sized city: Lowell, Massachusetts. The multidisciplinary lens applied provides crucial insights into how and why police organizations respond to a changing environment, set certain goals, and make decisions about how to achieve those goals. The book analyzes the community and organizational forces that stimulated change in the Lowell Police Department, describes the changes that enabled the department to achieve national model status, and builds a nexus between influencing forces, interdisciplinary theory, and the creation of an adaptive 21st-century police organization. Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department: Innovating to Reform is essential reading for academics and students in criminal justice, criminology, organizational studies, public administration, sociology, political science, and public policy programs, as well as government executives, crime policy analysts, and public- and private-sector managers and leaders engaged in professional development and leadership courses.

Policing in the 21St Century

Policing in the 21St Century
Author: Dr. Lee P. Brown
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 618
Release: 2012-12-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1468540971

Dr. Lee P. Brown, one of Americas most significant and respected law enforcement practitioners, has harnessed his thirty years of experiences in police work and authored Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing. Written for students, members of the police community, academicians, elected officials and members of the public, this work comes from the perspective of an individual who devoted his life to law enforcement. Dr. Brown began his career as a beat patrolmen who through hard work, diligence and continued education became the senior law enforcement official in three of this nations largest cities. The book is about Community Policing, the policing style for America in the Twenty-First Century. It not only describes the concept in great detail, but it also illuminates how it evolved, and how it is being implemented in various communities throughout America. There is no other law enforcement official or academician who is as capable as Dr. Brown of masterfully presenting the concept of Community Policing, which he pioneered. As a philosophy, Community Policing encourages law enforcement officials, and the people they are sworn to serve, to cooperatively address issues such as crime, community growth, and societal development. It calls for mutual respect and understanding between the police and the community. The book is written from the perspective of someone whose peers identify as the father of Community Policing, and who personally implemented it in Police Departments under his command. It is a thoroughly amazing book that has been heralded as a must read for anyone who has an interest in law enforcement. Elected officials, academicians, leaders of the nations police agencies and members of the public will be captivated by Dr. Browns literary contribution.

Economic Development, Crime, and Policing

Economic Development, Crime, and Policing
Author: Frederic Lemieux
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2014-12-04
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1482204568

The 22nd Annual Meeting of the International Police Executive Symposium was held in August 2012 at the United Nations Plaza in New York. Chaired by Dr. Garth den Heyer, the symposium focused on the links between economic development, armed violence, and public safety. Drawn from these proceedings, Economic Development, Crime, and Policing: Global Perspectives presents the insight of police leaders and researchers from a number of countries. They provide worldwide perspectives and case studies about the complex interrelations and influence of these issues on police practice in developed, developing, and transitioning countries. Topics include: Youth violence in society Economic downturn and global crime trends Restorative justice and recidivism Community-based policing Investigation techniques applied to financial crimes Policing gang violence Implementation of the rule of law in postconflict countries Policing transportation infrastructures The book organizes these topics according to regional perspectives (global, modern democracies, emerging democracies, and newly industrialized countries). It highlights ongoing response efforts related to challenges facing the police in emerging or newly democratized states. The book concludes with a comprehensive review of the fundamental elements of police reform and explores how such changes might affect society. It discusses the role of society in reforming police systems and suggests new directions for this broad research agenda. This book is a co-publication with the International Police Executive Symposium.

The Police-mental Health Partnership

The Police-mental Health Partnership
Author: Steven Marans
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 176
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780300064209

Many of our children live in communities where violence, fear, and despair are commonplace. This book describes how one city developed a collaborative effort between law-enforcement and mental health professionals in order to help these children and their families. The Child Development-Community Policing Program in New Haven, Connecticut, was initiated in 1991 to deal more effectively with children who are victims or perpetrators of violence. Police officers, preparing for the new responsibilities of community-based policing, have become familiar with an array of strategies for preventing and responding to community violence. Mental health professionals have learned firsthand about the texture and trauma of the lives of children at risk. Police and mental health professionals working together have been able to mobilize treatment services more quickly and effectively and to assure that treatment plans are carried out. This manual provides a model, case studies, and guidelines for training the participants, operating a consultation service, and evaluating the program on an ongoing basis, all of which will be useful for other communities seeking to implement a similar project.

The Politics of Law Enforcement

The Politics of Law Enforcement
Author: Alan Edward Bent
Publisher:
Total Pages: 242
Release: 1974
Genre: Police
ISBN:

This book is a study of urban police and their interest in obtaining power as individuals within the organization and collectively within the community. Urban society, beset by increases in crime and violence and the growing irrelevancy of primary socializing agents, must look to the police, the institutionalized control agency, for the preservation of peace, order, and tranquility in the community. The dilemma of a democratic society is how to give the police sufficient power to perform their role effectively, while at the same time maintaining restraints on the police in order to prevent abuses to democratic principles. This book looks at the discretionary conduct of policemen and whether adequate accountability measures exist -- and, if not, whether they can be realized, while allowing for the necessary development of police capabilities in the performance of requisite functions. In its focus on the behavior of police officials and the relationship of the police bureaucracy to the urban political system, the work strives to be both descriptive and prescriptive. The author uses examples from a cross-section of American cities and focuses on Memphis, Tennessee to illustrate the political events and social factors which effect policing. Collective police power is measured by the extent of their discretionary authority and freedom from external controls, individual power is perceived by the rational strategies on the part of police officials striving to attain or consolidate their personal power positions in the organization. Implicit in the police's struggle for power -- both personal and collective -- is the existence of conflict with challenging institutional and environmental forces and actors.

Police and Community in Chicago

Police and Community in Chicago
Author: Wesley G. Skogan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 531
Release: 2009-12-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199889864

Highly popular with both the public and political leaders, community policing is the most important development in law enforcement in the last twenty-five years. But does community policing really work? Can police departments fundamentally change their organization? Can neighborhood problems be solved? In the early 1990s, Chicago, the nation's third largest city, instituted the nation's largest community policing initiative. Wesley G. Skogan here provides the first comprehensive evaluation of that citywide program, examining its impact on crime, neighborhood residents, and the police. Based on the results of a thirteen-year study, including interviews, citywide surveys, and sophisticated statistical analyses, Police and Community in Chicago reveals a city divided among African-Americans, Whites, and Latinos. By looking at the varying effects community policing had on each of these groups, Skogan provides a valuable analysis of what works and why. As the use of community policing increases and issues related to race and immigration become more pressing, Police and Community in Chicago will serve the needs of an increasing amount of students, scholars, and professionals interested in the most effective and harmonious means of keeping communities safe.