Law enforcement and community concerns continue to change and become more challenging for police personnel. The actions of police officers at the time of an event and their response to crime problems have a direct correlation to the successful prosecution of the offender. Law enforcement officers must use all available resources in order to develop the skills and the ability to analyze and understand complex materials and investigations. Issues and Cases in Law Enforcement presents a variety of stimulating cases and issues that provoke critical analysis of emerging issues in the field. The cases contained in this text are designed to confront difficult decision-making issues, force officers and students of criminal justice to identify essential information, analyze facts appropriately, identify mistakes, recognize alternatives, choose alternatives, and make reasonable conclusions. The text also incorporates the opportunity for open exploration of these sensitive issues, with an understanding of cultural and racial concerns, and the promotion of a productive discussion regarding critical topics. The complexities of proper case presentation, testimony, and prosecution in today's environment necessitate that law enforcement officers and students of criminal justice have a clear understanding of contemporary dilemmas. This book will enable the officer and students of criminal justice to write clear and comprehensive reports to document complicated events, to clearly articulate intricate details in a court of law, and react appropriately to people with varied problems and perceptions.

Briefs of Leading Cases in Law Enforcement, Eighth Edition offers extensive updates on the leading Supreme Court cases impacting law enforcement in the United States, creating a must-have reference for police officers to stay up-to-date and have a strong understanding of the law and their function within it. All cases are briefed in a common format to allow for comparisons among cases and include facts, relevant issues, and the Court’s decision and reasoning. The significance of each case is also explained, making clear its impact on citizens and law enforcement. The book provides students and practitioners with historical and social context for their role in criminal justice and the legal guidelines that should be followed in day-to-day policing activities. This edition includes eight new cases related to the exclusionary rule, stop and frisk, searches after arrest, vehicle stops and searches, cases affirming the Miranda decision, and right to counsel related to policing.

Managing a major case is among the most challenging managerial functions that anyone in law enforcement can perform, and there are numerous pitfalls to avoid. It is the goal of this book to provide law enforcement managers with the necessary tools and strategies they can use in managing their next major case. Many of these strategies were learned through trial and error. It begins with a look at the various elements of the investigative process. Organization of the investigative unit, whether it is a general assignment or highly specialized unit, is discussed as well as how to determine proper.

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred. Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing. Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.

“At a time when policing in America is at a crossroads, Barry Friedman provides much-needed insight, analysis, and direction in his thoughtful new book. Unwarranted illuminates many of the often ignored issues surrounding how we police in America and highlights why reform is so urgently needed. This revealing book comes at a critically important time and has much to offer all who care about fair treatment and public safety.” —Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption In June 2013, documents leaked by Edward Snowden sparked widespread debate about secret government surveillance of Americans. Just over a year later, the shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, set off protests and triggered concern about militarization of law enforcement and discriminatory policing. In Unwarranted, Barry Friedman argues that these two seemingly disparate events are connected—and that the problem is not so much the policing agencies as it is the rest of us. We allow these agencies to operate in secret and to decide how to police us, rather than calling the shots ourselves. And the courts, which we depended upon to supervise policing, have let us down entirely. Unwarranted tells the stories of ordinary people whose lives were torn apart by policing—by the methods of cops on the beat and those of the FBI and NSA. Driven by technology, policing has changed dramatically. Once, cops sought out bad guys; today, increasingly militarized forces conduct wide surveillance of all of us. Friedman captures the eerie new environment in which CCTV, location tracking, and predictive policing have made suspects of us all, while proliferating SWAT teams and increased use of force have put everyone’s property and lives at risk. Policing falls particularly heavily on minority communities and the poor, but as Unwarranted makes clear, the effects of policing are much broader still. Policing is everyone’s problem. Police play an indispensable role in our society. But our failure to supervise them has left us all in peril. Unwarranted is a critical, timely intervention into debates about policing, a call to take responsibility for governing those who govern us.

Privacy is a growing concern in the United States and around the world. The spread of the Internet and the seemingly boundaryless options for collecting, saving, sharing, and comparing information trigger consumer worries. Online practices of business and government agencies may present new ways to compromise privacy, and e-commerce and technologies that make a wide range of personal information available to anyone with a Web browser only begin to hint at the possibilities for inappropriate or unwarranted intrusion into our personal lives. Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age presents a comprehensive and multidisciplinary examination of privacy in the information age. It explores such important concepts as how the threats to privacy evolving, how can privacy be protected and how society can balance the interests of individuals, businesses and government in ways that promote privacy reasonably and effectively? This book seeks to raise awareness of the web of connectedness among the actions one takes and the privacy policies that are enacted, and provides a variety of tools and concepts with which debates over privacy can be more fruitfully engaged. Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age focuses on three major components affecting notions, perceptions, and expectations of privacy: technological change, societal shifts, and circumstantial discontinuities. This book will be of special interest to anyone interested in understanding why privacy issues are often so intractable.

Understanding case law in high-liability areas and performing the job within a legal framework places a criminal justice agency in the best position to defend against a lawsuit. This handbook addresses the problems confronting criminal justice practitioners and their agencies due to the ever-increasing number of civil liability lawsuits. It introduces the reader to civil liability generally and the federal law specifically, while indicating the steps that can be taken to minimize the risk of litigation. Civil Liability in Criminal Justice is one of very few texts on the subject that combines applicable case law and related liability research, a valuable feature for current and future policy makers and managers. Ross also provides an overview of current case law in high-liability areas, enhancing student knowledge and practitioner job performance.

Why Law Enforcement Organizations Faildissects headline cases to examine how things go wrong in criminal justice agencies. The third edition features new cases in each chapter including coverage of LaQuan McDonald's death; excessive force in Baltimore and during the Ferguson riots; and the death of Deborah Danner, a mentally ill woman in New York. Highlight cases that remain from earlier editions include New Orleans' Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina; the death of Amadou Diallo; the Jon Benet Ramsey murder investigation; and the conflagration that ended the siege at the MOVE house in Philadelphia. These human tragedies and organizational debacles serve as starting points for exploring how common structural and cultural fault lines in police organizations set the stage for major failures. The author provides a framework for sorting through these cases to help readers recognize the distinct roles of operational mechanics, organizational structures, rank and file culture and executive hubris in making criminal justice agencies vulnerable to failure. The book examines how dysfunctions such as institutional racism, sexual harassment, systems abuse and renegade enforcement become established and then readily blossom into major scandals. Why Law Enforcement Organizations Fail also shows how managers and oversight officials can spot malignant individuals, identify perverse incentives, neutralize deviant cultures and recognize when reigning managerial philosophies or governing policies are producing diminishing or negative returns. This book is jargon-free and communicates plainly with students and criminal justice professionals. This is a highly-teachable book that also provides pragmatic long-term guidance for how to deal with crises, prevent their recurrence and restore organizational legitimacy. This book is an excellent centerpiece for any class on police organization and management, criminal justice policy or police-community relations. Praise for earlier editions: