Ambush attacks against law enforcement officers remain a threat to officer safety, with the number of attacks per year holding steady since a decline in the early 1990s and the proportion of fatal attacks on officers attributable to ambushes increasing. Concerns about targeted violence against police are on the rise, while officers must not only be guardians of the public but also be prepared to respond to violence targeting them. This report details findings from four inquiries on the topic: 1. A series of focus groups with police leaders to discuss ambushes, including definitional issues, preparation and protection strategies, and recovery after ambush incidents. 2. A quantitative analysis of environmental (agency and jurisdictional) characteristics associated with increases in the number of ambushes experienced by agencies over a five-year period. 3. A quantitative analysis of ambush incident survivability rates associated with officer, suspect, and incident characteristics. 4. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of organizational learning in the wake of ambush incidents based on survey data collected as part of this study.

Violent crime has been rising sharply in many American cities after two decades of decline. Homicides jumped nearly 17 percent in 2015 in the largest 50 cities, the biggest one-year increase since 1993. The reason is what Heather Mac Donald first identified nationally as the “Ferguson effect”: Since the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, officers have been backing off of proactive policing, and criminals are becoming emboldened. This book expands on Mac Donald’s groundbreaking and controversial reporting on the Ferguson effect and the criminal-justice system. It deconstructs the central narrative of the Black Lives Matter movement: that racist cops are the greatest threat to young black males. On the contrary, it is criminals and gangbangers who are responsible for the high black homicide death rate. The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of “mass incarceration.” A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that “black lives matter” than today’s data-driven, accountable police department. Mac Donald gives voice to the many residents of high-crime neighborhoods who want proactive policing. She warns that race-based attacks on the criminal-justice system, from the White House on down, are eroding the authority of law and putting lives at risk. This book is a call for a more honest and informed debate about policing, crime, and race.

The first edition (1989) is cited in ARBA 1990 and the Supplement to Sheehy . A reference that contains signed, alphabetical entries which examine all major aspects of American policing and police science, including history, current practices, new initiatives, social pressures, and political factors. The second edition considerable expands its scope with 70 new entries and revisions and updates of others. In this edition, greater emphasis is placed on the coverage of drug-abuse suppression, new types of crime, federal mandates for action, and international developments that affect American police. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, OR.

A reader to accompany the textbook Policing Urban America, the pair emphasizing the importance of involving community members in decisions concerning law enforcement, including tasks, objectives, and goals. Some articles have been updated from the 1997 third edition (first in 1989) and some new ones have been added. c. Book News Inc.