This book provides the “how to’s” of police patrol, focusing on how officers on the front line perform their duties (covering both skills and techniques), meet day-to-day challenges, and manage the tasks and risks associated with modern police patrol. Drawing on theory, research, and the experience of numerous practitioners, it provides practical daily checklists and guidance for delivering primary police services: • Conducting mobile and foot patrols • Completing a preliminary investigation • Canvassing a neighborhood • Developing street contacts • Building and sustaining trust • Delivering death notifications, and more. It features interviews with frontline officers, as well as both police chiefs and supervisors to examine the role of police officers in the 21st century and their partnership with, and accountability to, the communities they serve. In addition, this book explores how modern policing has evolved by examining the research, innovation, tradition, and technology upon which it is based. It provides new perspectives and ideas as well as basic knowledge of daily practices, offering value to new and experienced police and security personnel alike; students in criminal justice, law and public safety; community leaders; and others involved in advancing police operations and community well-being.

Problem-oriented policing is examined from the perspective of the daily work of police officers, with emphasis on the results of a problem-oriented experiment in Oakland, Calif. and on the applicability of this and related approaches to drug-related crime. The analysis focuses on the evolution of the problem-oriented approach, the role of the problem-oriented police officer, and experiments with the approach in several jurisdictions. It also examines problem-oriented policing as an example of work reform and shows how this approach is congruent with what industrial psychologists know about work motivation and how to raise it. Issues related to organizational change and resistance to change when innovations are introduced are also examined. The Oakland experiment is detailed in terms of its planning, the establishment of the peer review panel, and the development of family crisis teams and family crisis management. Concluding chapters focus on current trends, including community-oriented policing and combinations of policing concepts and their applicability to drug crime and the problems associated with it.

In Policing China, Suzanne E. Scoggins delves into the paradox of China's self-projection of a strong security state while having a weak police bureaucracy. Assessing the problems of resources, enforcement, and oversight that beset the police, outside of cracking down on political protests, Scoggins finds that the central government and the Ministry of Public Security have prioritized "stability maintenance" (weiwen) to the detriment of nearly every aspect of policing. The result, she argues, is a hollowed out and ineffective police force that struggles to deal with everyday crime. Using interviews with police officers up and down the hierarchy, as well as station data, news reports, and social media postings, Scoggins probes the challenges faced by ground-level officers and their superiors at the Ministry of Public Security as they attempt to do their jobs in the face of funding limitations, reform challenges, and structural issues. Policing China concludes that despite the social control exerted by China's powerful bureaucracies, security failures at the street level have undermined Chinese citizens' trust in the legitimacy of the police and the capabilities of the state.

The police service in England and Wales is facing major challenges in its financing, political oversight and reorganisation of its structures. Current economic conditions have created a wholly new environment whereby cost saving is permitting hitherto unthinkable changes in the style and means of delivery of policing services. In the context of these proposed changes Lord Stevens, formerly Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service was asked to chair an Independent Commission looking into the future of policing. The Commission has a wide ranging remit and the papers in this book offer up-to-date analysis of contemporary problems from the novel perspective of developing a reform agenda to assist the Commission. Bringing together contributions from both key academic thinkers and police professionals, this book discusses new policing paradigms, lays out a case for an evidence-based practice approach and draws attention to developing areas such as terrorism, public order and hate crime. Policing is too important to be left to politicians, as the health of a democracy may be judged by the relationship between the police and the public. The aim of this book is to question and present analyses of problems offer new ideas and propose realistically achievable solutions without being so timid as to preserve the status quo. It will be of interest to both academics and students in the fields of criminology and policing studies, as well as professionals in the policing service, NGOs and local authority organisations.

Policing the Pandemic explores how police agencies in United Kingdom and the United States have adjusted to their changing environments, both during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and later, when the restrictions have been relaxed and the societies have begun to develop their new normal. Combining interviews and surveys of police officers and police administrators from the United Kingdom and the United States, this book provides a systematic and empirically based account of these changes and elaborates on the lessons for the future. The book offers insight into organizational and operational changes brought on by the pandemic, including the changes in their workload, enforcement activities, and administrative changes. It examines police perceptions of, and compliance with, pandemic-related changes, any potential COVID-19-related training, and the frequency with which they used various responses when observing violations of COVID-19 regulations and laws. It also focuses on police officers’ own fear of contracting COVID-19, whether they had been diagnosed with COVID-19, and how the pandemic affected their own health, stress, and general well-being. This book is an essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and police administrators tackling issues such as procedural justice, organizational change, and police officer well-being, as well as those more widely engaged with societal and legal consequences of the pandemic, be it the COVID-19 pandemic or any future pandemics.

Policing in the 21st Century : Seventh report of session 2007-08, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

The 7th report (HCP 364-I, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215524867), from the Home Affairs Committee examines policing in the 21st century, with Volume 2, providing oral and written evidence, (ISBN 9780215524850). The Government aims to replace the top-down police targets with locally-set priorities and encourage greater use of officer discretion, backed by more effective supervision. At present, the Committee believes that public expectations of the police are not being met, with the public wanting the police to put a greater focus on minor crime and anti-social behaviour. Further, the police need to be more visible and responsive to the public and give greater consideration to the needs of the victim when investigating crime. Police resources have been put under greater pressure particularly where foreign nationals need to be processed. Whilst funding shortfalls have been exposed where rapid population change has occurred due to immigration.The Committee highlights a concern over the deployment of police for longer periods dealing with alcohol-related crime due to the changes in the licensing laws and are not convinced of the effectiveness of Alcohol Disorder Zones. Further, the Committee expresses concern about the large number of murder suspects released on bail, but do support amendments to the bail laws to take into account the capacity of the police forces to monitor offenders, and a presumption against bail in murder cases. There are also examples of effective police approaches in reducing gang-related knife and gun crime, combining diversionary activities and targeted intelligence-led campaigns against known offenders. The police need to find ways though to free up resources, and the Committee expresses disappointment at the lack of progress in reducing police bureaucracy. Centralisation of the development and purchase of technology through the National Policing Improvement should reduce costs and ensure systems are integrated and prevent duplication. More control should be given to local forces, with greater accountability of policing at a local level. The Committee also identifies a gap in provision for tackling serious and organised crime.