This is not your father's policing text. After recently surveying the field of available textbooks in the “Introduction to Policing” niche, I have to admit that I felt as if I could’ve listed all of the titles on the wall, worn a blindfold, and thrown a dart to make my selection. It sure seemed to me like they all followed roughly the same formula: police history, the functions and role of police in society, becoming an officer, and a chapter or two on current issues (most of which were “current” ten years ago). In short, the standard rehashed and tired material shuffled around a bit without any new perspective or insight. However, when I looked into Jeff Ross’ Policing Issues, I was pleasantly surprised to find a very different approach.
This is an absolutely refreshing take on policing that recognizes the need for rational social justice‐oriented reform, guided by the identification of problems in policing and their potential solutions, and drawing on “experts, observers, or consumers of policing services.” While acknowledging the importance of research in this process, there is a healthy dose of skepticism interjected by directly asking the tough questions: who is doing the research, who is the audience, what methodologies are being employed, and at what levels of analysis? The text is clearly student‐centered (indeed, the organization of the text was guided in part by Ross’ research on his own students) and skillfully achieves the goal of contextualizing policing issues for a student audience. Each chapter concludes with a glossary of terms and review questions.
The book is organized in three parts, with Part I providing an introduction and history of policing in the USA. Included in this section is a chapter entitled, “The mythology of municipal policing,” which reviews evidence on the dangers of policing, police stress, and its effects (including suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, mortality, and divorce). Students will appreciate this chapter and it will undoubtedly generate some interesting classroom discussion. There are ample multimedia sources available for instructors who wish to supplement this chapter, including popular media programs that dovetail nicely with the identified myths.
Part II, “Problems for citizens and the community,” explores a broad range of police‐public issues, the first of which is a very timely and important concern: the emphasis of public relations over crime reduction. There is growing attention to the problem of eroding trust and confidence in the police, not only in terms of crime control but also in terms of police behavior. There also seems to be growing recognition of the importance of procedural justice in guiding police‐citizen interactions, and therefore, growing recognition of the importance of procedural justice as part of police training. Yet, as the Department of Justice continues to undertake its “pattern or practice” investigations of police departments and seek reform, agencies and municipalities are increasingly forced to deal more with the perceptual component of police integrity as opposed to the actual behavioral component. Police executives have long observed an often substantial disconnect between actual police behavior and the public perception of that behavior, and so I think that public relations is an important problem to be discussed in a policing text, perhaps all the more so as we are seeing police departments contracting with public relations consultants on the management of their public image. Other chapters (i.e. problems) in this section include: failure to properly investigate crime; improper discretion; inability to significantly reduce crime; poor police‐community relations; deviance and corruption; and police violence/excessive force. I imagine students will salivate at the mere mention of these topics.
Part III, “Problems for police officers and administrators,” leads off with another very timely and important issue: the failure to adopt and/or properly use new technology. Although this chapter covers a broad range of technologies in traffic enforcement, less‐than‐lethal weapons, officer safety, investigations, and communications, I think that this chapter would be stronger if it had paid more attention to the issue of whether and how the forensic sciences inform police investigations. The technologies reviewed in that area include gunshot detection systems, closed circuit television, and the “Magic Wand” for detection of latent prints, but given the many advancements in the forensic arena over the past couple of decades I think this chapter is a little lacking. For example, I was surprised not to see any reference or discussion of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and its utility (or disutility) to police investigations. Again, instructors could easily supplement with this material, and perhaps it is better to handle it that way since technological developments typically move much faster than updated editions of textbooks. Other chapters in this section include: inability to properly manage, supervise, and lead police organizations; cooperation/collaboration with other police departments and criminal justice agencies, underfunding, inadequate waged and compensation, ineffective/insufficient recruitment, education, and training; working conditions; and the future of municipal policing.
If anything, Ross’ text suffers from the same problem of balance that all textbooks suffer; namely, the tradeoff between breadth and depth. You simply can’t have both and keep your publisher happy. There were times when I wished for greater depth on a few specific topics, but I think instructors can easily supplement with articles, multimedia, and other material as needed. That is, after all, what makes an instructor's course fresh, interesting, and unique. The important thing is that this text will help to re‐energize the instructor, and challenge him/her to revisit their overall approach to introductory level policing courses. All in all, I am quite pleased with Policing Issues and would whole‐heartedly recommend it for adoption in undergraduate introduction to policing or introduction to law enforcement courses. This text will excite students and make the experience enjoyable for students and professors alike.
