Provides a critical understanding and evaluation of police tactics and the use of force Police violence has historically played an important role in shaping public attitudes toward the government. Community trust and confidence in policing have been undermined by the perception that officers are using force unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematic ways. The use of force, or harm suffered by a community as a result of such force, can also serve as a flashpoint, a spark that ignites long-simmering community hostility. In Evaluating Police Uses of Force, legal scholar Seth W. Stoughton, former deputy chief of police Jeffrey J. Noble, and distinguished criminologist Geoffrey P. Alpert explore a critical but largely overlooked facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: how does society evaluate use-of-force incidents? By leading readers through answers to this question from four different perspectives—constitutional law, state law, administrative regulation, and community expectations—and by providing critical information about police tactics and force options that are implicated within those frameworks, Evaluating Police Uses of Force helps situate readers within broader conversations about governmental accountability, the role that police play in modern society, and how officers should go about fulfilling their duties.

Provides a critical understanding and evaluation of police tactics and the use of force Police violence has historically played an important role in shaping public attitudes toward the government. Community trust and confidence in policing have been undermined by the perception that officers are using force unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematic ways. The use of force, or harm suffered by a community as a result of such force, can also serve as a flashpoint, a spark that ignites long-simmering community hostility. In Evaluating Police Uses of Force, legal scholar Seth W. Stoughton, former deputy chief of police Jeffrey J. Noble, and distinguished criminologist Geoffrey P. Alpert explore a critical but largely overlooked facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: how does society evaluate use-of-force incidents? By leading readers through answers to this question from four different perspectives—constitutional law, state law, administrative regulation, and community expectations—and by providing critical information about police tactics and force options that are implicated within those frameworks, Evaluating Police Uses of Force helps situate readers within broader conversations about governmental accountability, the role that police play in modern society, and how officers should go about fulfilling their duties.

Provides a critical understanding and evaluation of police tactics and the use of force Police violence has historically played an important role in shaping public attitudes toward the government. Community trust and confidence in policing have been undermined by the perception that officers are using force unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematic ways. The use of force, or harm suffered by a community as a result of such force, can also serve as a flashpoint, a spark that ignites long-simmering community hostility. In Evaluating Police Uses of Force, legal scholar Seth W. Stoughton, former deputy chief of police Jeffrey J. Noble, and distinguished criminologist Geoffrey P. Alpert explore a critical but largely overlooked facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: how does society evaluate use-of-force incidents? By leading readers through answers to this question from four different perspectives—constitutional law, state law, administrative regulation, and community expectations—and by providing critical information about police tactics and force options that are implicated within those frameworks, Evaluating Police Uses of Force helps situate readers within broader conversations about governmental accountability, the role that police play in modern society, and how officers should go about fulfilling their duties.

There is tremendous controversy across the United States (and beyond) when a police officer uses deadly force against an unarmed citizen, but often the conversation is devoid of contextual details. These details matter greatly as a matter of law and organizational legitimacy. In this short book, authors Jon Shane and Zoë Swenson offer a comprehensive analysis of the first study to use publicly available data to reveal the context in which an officer used deadly force against an unarmed citizen. Although any police shooting, even a justified shooting, is not a desired outcome—often termed "lawful but awful" in policing circles—it is not necessarily a crime. The results of this study lend support to the notion that being unarmed does not mean "not dangerous," in some ways explaining why most police officers are not indicted when such a shooting occurs. The study’s findings show that when police officers used deadly force during an encounter with an unarmed citizen, the officer or a third person was facing imminent threat of death or serious injury in the vast majority of situations. Moreover, when police officers used force, their actions were almost always consistent with the accepted legal and policy principles that govern law enforcement in the overwhelming proportion of encounters (as measured by indictments). Noting the dearth of official data on the context of police shooting fatalities, Shane and Swenson call for the U.S. government to compile comprehensive data so researchers and practitioners can learn from deadly force encounters and improve practices. They further recommend that future research on police shootings should examine the patterns and micro-interactions between the officer, citizen, and environment in relation to the prevailing law. The unique data and analysis in this book will inform discussions of police use of force for researchers, policymakers, and students involved in criminal justice, public policy, and policing.

Jottings is a collection of poems written over a period of twenty years. Most of the poems in this collection are contextual. Written in different genres of poetry, while some of the poems appear as general statements but having a bearing on nature. Others are responses of the poet to social/economic/political issues and those related to women. The poems reflect the mood and views of the poet.While poems like "A Symbol of Beauty," "Horizon," "Loss" appear simple, they have an underlying meaning, the philosophy of life. In poems like "Disgusting" and "To a Brave Son," the poet points an accusing finger at the powers that be for the sorry state of affairs. "Love" brings out the true meaning of the word while describing the different stages in the life of a person. The life of a girl child form the theme of "Who Am I." The hapless condition of young women and children, especially girls, are brought to fore in "To Ponnus and Malalas" and "Sadist Minds." "Down Memory Lane" goes back in time.There are also satirical poems that take potshots at and ridicule the superstitious and the believers like "Light That Darkens," "In Fool's Paradise," "Onam," and "In Your Name." Again, while "Bapu" is on Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals, it ridicules all those who earned fame in his name. While "Motherland's Boys" talks of the deterioration of India-Pakistan relations, "How Many More Children Will You Kill" chides Israelis and Palestinians for deaths of innocent children. "An Unknown Past" looks at an old person struggling in vain to open the locked doors of her memory. There are also poems that talk of a personal loss and some that snub individuals that make haughty statements.All the illustrations in the book are by cartoonist and animator Mr. Swathi Jaikumar.

Publisher Description

The now-famous videotape of the beating of Rodney King precipitated a national outcry against police violence. Skolnick and Fyfe, two of the nation's top experts on law enforcement, use the incident to introduce a revealing historical analysis of such violence and the extent of its survival in law enforcement today.

The current crisis in policing can be traced to failures of reform. “Sparrow surely is right to condemn policing directed only at crime rates rather than community satisfaction.” –The New York Times Book Review In the past two years, America has witnessed incendiary milestones in the poor relations between police and the African-American community: Ferguson, Baltimore, and more recently Baton Rouge, St. Paul, and Dallas. Malcolm Sparrow, who teaches at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is a former British police detective, argues that other factors in the development of police theory and practice over the last twenty-five years have also played a major role in contributing to these tragedies and to a great many other cases involving excessive police force and community alienation. Sparrow shows how the core ideas of community and problem-solving policing have failed to thrive. In many police departments these foundational ideas have been reduced to mere rhetoric. The result is heavy reliance on narrow quantitative metrics, where police define how well they are doing by tallying up traffic stops, or arrests made for petty crimes. Sparrow's analysis shows what it will take for police departments to escape their narrow focus and perverse metrics and turn back to making public safety and public cooperation their primary goals. Police, according to Sparrow, are in the risk-control business and need to grasp the fundamental nature of that challenge and develop a much more sophisticated understanding of its implications for mission, methods, measurement, partnerships, and analysis.

The approach that should be used by law enforcement officers in order to safely and effectively enter a room is a point of contention among many police trainers. Based on five experiments conducted over a two-year period, Evaluating Police Tactics demonstrates that the conventional wisdom is not optimal. Using the scientific method to systematically assess current room entry philosophies and techniques employed by police, Evaluating Police Tactics offers suggestions for examining the current philosophies and determining how patrol officers can enter scenes of ongoing violence, find the shooter, and stop the killing as safely and effectively as possible. About the Real-World Criminology Series More than just textbooks, the short books in the Real-World Criminology series are designed to be of interest to particular fields within criminology. They can be policy primers, spurring innovations in policing and corrections, theoretical works dealing with policy implications, or program evaluations incorporating theoretical foundations. Each book covers something that is happening –or should be happening—in the world of criminal justice.

A comprehensive collection on police and policing, written by experts in political theory, sociology, criminology, economics, law, public health, and critical theory.