The New World of Police Accountability

If you're looking for a how-to guide on dealing with individual police encounters, NWPA is not for you. Nor is it for you if you're someone trying to fight criminal charges or thinking about suing the police for civil damages. However, if you're a law enforcement manager, a civil rights lawyer, or a community activist involved in police accountability issues – NWPA will quickly get you up to speed on the most effective practices in the universe of police accountability.As for me, I'm currently developing a new online police complaints service. But like many neophyte police accountability professionals, I arrived with some common, but wrongheaded, assumptions regarding the most effective police accountability policies. For example, like many libertarian-minded police reformers, I've generally been skeptical of heavy-handed federal involvement in state policing issues. However, the authors convincingly illustrate how the Department of Justice’s "pattern or practice" lawsuits against persistently abusive big-city departments have had an overwhelmingly positive impact on American policing.Moreover, these lawsuits have "defined a short list of basic accountability procedures: state-of-the-art use of force policies, an open and accessible citizen complaint procedure, and an early intervention system." Essentially, the lawsuits have helped established a comprehensive set of best practices that when put into place significantly improve bonds of trust between the police and the public.The Problem of "Celebrated Cases"This second edition of NWPA was published in 2014, perhaps mere weeks or months before the police killing of Michael Brown (and Eric Garner soon after) pushed the problem of police abuse into the public consciousness like never before. Yet the authors are keenly aware of the problematic ways that such "celebrated cases" tend to "distort public perception of the current state of American policing."Taken out of context, this de-emphasis of such high-profile incidents might seem like an attempt to dismiss the horrors of such police-involved killings. But the authors have a more subtle and important point. Namely, such cases tend to emphasize less-effective responses (e.g. more officer prosecutions) that "obscure important changes that occur quietly, including many important reforms."Those important reforms include the implementation of state-of-the art use of force policies, improved early intervention systems, and open and accessible citizen complaint procedures. None of these goals are likely to animate the passions of civil right protesters, but the evidence suggest that they offer the best policy bang for our bucks.

great book

The definitive book by the definitive author.

Excellent!

well written on modern times of law enforcement

I thought it would show a brak-down of how to work out the problems.

Very interesting read that covers a lot of topics however paper/page quality is very poor - it is thin and not nice to handle. I buy paper books because I prefer holding something to online reading but here I suggest saving money and buying online as the book is not a good handle/feel.