The New World of Police Accountability

Police misconduct is nothing new in the United States. Use of excessive force, unjustified shootings, race discrimination, and a general lack of accountability for officer conduct have been serious problems since the first police departments were created in the early nineteenth century. Although today's media coverage of these major police offenses portrays otherwise, significant progress has been made in reducing police misconduct.The New World of Police Accountability is the first book to provide an original and comprehensive analysis of some of the most important developments in policing over the past ten years. Esteemed author Samuel Walker synthesizes the major developments in the area of police accountability and argues that these developments represent a new period in the history of police reform that promises to address the historic problems of police abuse. This text assesses both the achievements and limitations of police accountability and reshapes the conventional wisdom on this topic. The book covers such issues as federal law suits against the police, consent decrees, citizen oversight of the police, and early intervention systems.Key FeaturesExamines timely and up-to-date coverage of current police controversies Discusses important new mechanisms of accountability, such as comprehensive use of force reporting, citizen complaint procedures, early intervention systems, and police auditors Provides extensive coverage of racial profiling Includes a helpful list of Web sites for further research on the topics covered in the book The New World of Police Accountability is designed as a supplementary textbook for undergraduate and graduate policing courses in the departments of Criminal Justice and Criminology. The book will also be of interest to scholars, police officials, citizen oversight officials, and community activists.