Police officers should care about civil rights for both pragmatic and ethical reasons. As practical matters, a violation of a suspected perpetrator's civil rights can invalidate the arrest and/or cause the case to be dismissed when it gets to court, regardless of other merit. Routine disrespect of the civil rights of community residents—arbitrary stop-and-frisks, profiling,...Read More

Not all questions have perfect answers – not all choices have perfect outcomes. In a democratic society, the questions police officers face on a daily, if not hourly basis, do not have perfect answers – their choices have unintended consequences. All decisions have real and potentially life changing consequences for the officer and the citizen....Read More

Many police officers typically view themselves as crime fighters or crook catchers and the media tends to portray policing in the same fashion. As a consequence, many people seeking careers in law enforcement do so because of the “exciting” connotation surrounding police work. But how accurate is this view of policing? How much actual crime...Read More

The value of a college degree for people wanting careers in law enforcement has been debated for decades. While the research is not conclusive on the effects a college education has on police officer performance, there are a number of compelling reasons for people interested in law enforcement careers to obtain a college degree. So...Read More

Policing is an inherently spatial activity. That is, policing happens somewhere. This may sound obvious, but many politicians and theorists seem to have either forgotten about the geographic component of police work or never thought about it at all. Further, it is not just that policing happens somewhere, it’s that all somewheres, despite their potential commonalities, have...Read More

A police department is only as good as the aggregate of its membership, and, in some cases, it is only as strong as its weakest or least professional officers. Police administrators have long recognized this fact and substantial effort and resources toward selecting the best applicants for positions as police officers. Today, even with the...Read More

officers affect the operations of the entire criminal justice system, but police are said to be the “gate keepers” of the system: “They are usually the first to make contact with accused offenders and are in a position to make some very important decisions about what will happen to those individuals.Read More

Community policing is the first substantive reform in the American police institution since it embraced the professional model nearly a century ago. It is a dramatic change in the philosophy that determines the way police agencies engage the public. It incorporates a philosophy that broadens the police mission from a narrow focus on crime and...Read More

People frequently associate criminal investigations with detectives. These perceptions are probably based on the many popular television shows and novels that characterize the detective as the person responsible for investigating crimes and bringing criminals to justice. Investigations are not the exclusive domain of detectives. Other police personnel such as those assigned to patrol, traffic, or...Read More