Police Culture
Bouza, Anthony V. (2001). POLICE UNBOUND: CORRUPTION, ABUSE, AND HEROISM BY THE BOYS IN BLUE. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, ISBN: 1573928771
If you want to read a book by one who takes a stand, this is your ticket. Bouza (former Minneapolis police chief, deputy chief of the New York City Transit Police and a lawyer) has got an opinion on the death penalty (eliminate it), police intelligence and police decoys (expand their usage), racial and economic disparities (which he sees as severe and a major underlying cause of crime), mandatory sentences (wrong-headed and counterproductive) and drug laws (which serve to overpopulate prisons with sick people who need rehab). Bouza presents his views with force and without apology. The best parts of this book come when Bouza distills his experiences and opinions into insights that any police supervisor can take to the bank. You can read a thick police management book or you can simply dwell on Bouza’s take on police management: “ Management means efficiency and effectiveness — doing things better and cheaper.” No one can engage with this book without being provoked to thoughtful reflection on a whole range of legal and social issues. (Law Enforcement News)
Carlson, Daniel P. (2002). WHEN CULTURES CLASH: THE DIVISIVE NATURE OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0130910570
Blazing new trails in its incisive examination of the culture of policing, this volume clearly defines and discusses the cultural underpinnings of the law enforcement community. The book addresses several areas of importance—the tension that sometimes drives interactions between citizens and the police, officer safety, policing gone awry, and programs and initiatives to bridge the gap between citizens and the police. The author details the nature of policing from both the citizen’s point of view and the police officers point of view. (From the publisher)
Gerber, Gwendolyn L. (2001). WOMEN AND MEN POLICE OFFICERS : STATUS, GENDER AND PERSONALITY. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, ISBN: 0275967492
Gerber challenges traditional beliefs about gender and develops a new model for understanding gender—the status model of gender stereotyping. The book focuses on how expectations about status and gender impact police officers, who work together as partners. Her study includes same-sex police partnerships as well as partnerships in which a woman works with a man. (amazon.com)
McKetta, Frank (2000). POLICE, POLITICS, CORRUPTION: THE MIXTURE DANGEROUS TO FREEDOM AND JUSTICE. Camp Hill, Pa.: Polis Publishing, ISBN: 0870126113
Revealing stories of how politics has influenced local, state, and federal law enforcement from the turn of the century until recent times. Gives vignettes of historical political corruption of police and personal experiences in coping with the problem. Offers a perspective on some approaches to lessen the corrupting influences of politics. (From the publisher)
Paoline, Eugene A. (2001) RETHINKING POLICE CULTURE: OFFICERS’ OCCUPATIONAL ATTITUDES. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, ISBN: 1931202133
Using survey data from two metropolitan police departments, Paoline examines attitudinal similarities and differences among officers. His findings indicate that the attitudinal homogeneity associated with police culture is overstated; he finds multiple attitudinal groups among officers. These differences are less attributable to the officers’ background and more related to the shift and area in which they work. In addition, the patrol officers’ direct supervisors (sergeants and lieutenants) attitudinally align with their subordinates. (From the publisher)
Perlmutter, David D. (2000) POLICING THE MEDIA: STREET COPS AND PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT.Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, ISBN: 0761911049
It is an investigation into one of the paradoxes of the mass-mediated age. Issues, events, and people that we “see” most on our television screens are often those that we understand the least. David Perlmutter examined this issue as it relates to one of the most frequently portrayed groups of people on television: police officers. “Policing the Media“ is a report on the ethnography of a police department, derived from the author’s experience riding on patrol with officers and joining the department as a reserve policeman. Drawing upon interviews, personal observations, and the author’s black-and-white photographs of cops and the “clients,” Perlmutter describes the lives and philosophies of street patrol officers. He finds that cops hold ambiguous attitudes toward their television comrades, for much of TV copland is fantastic and preposterous. Even those programs that boast gritty realism little resemble actual police work. Moreover, the officers perceive that the public’s attitudes toward law enforcement and crime are directly (and largely nefariously) influenced by mass media. This in turn, he suggests, influences the way that they themselves behave and “perform” on the street, and that unreal and surreal expectations of them are propagated by television cop shows. This cycle of perceptual influence may itself profoundly impact the contemporary criminal justice system, on the street, in the courts, and in the hearts and minds of ordinary people. (From the publisher)
Poteet, Lewis J. and Poteet Aaron C. (2000). COP TALK: A DICTIONARY OF POLICE SLANG. Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, ISBN: 0595133754
“Cop Talk” is a lively collection of the words and phrases of police slang, from both live and printed sources, with definitions and many appropriate examples of usage. The work of father and son Lewis and Aaron Poteet, this lively wordbook presents the slang of law enforcement officers, including prison guards, customs officers, and street cops. It includes language gathered both from working and ex-cops and from printed sources. (Editors of amazon.com)
Schulman, Arlene. (2001). 23RD PRECINCT: THE JOB. New York: Soho Press, ISBN: 1569472378
Journalist-photographer Schulman spent nearly two years in New York’s 23rd Precinct, going out on patrol with daily shifts of officers into one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city: East Harlem. Schulman got to know all ranks — cops riding desks and sector cars, cops on foot patrol, and detectives on special details like homicide, robbery and narcotics. 23rd Precinct is a report, literally from street level, of what she witnessed occurring between police and citizens, and between the cops themselves: what they think, feel, and fear. It is a candid, raw portrait of what the job takes and what it gives back. Often told in the words of the officers themselves, it is a revelatory look at the men and women policing and experiencing an inner city precinct. (From the publisher)
Trautman, Neal E. (2000). HOW TO BE A GREAT COP. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0130324744
An easy-to-read handbook that incorporates years of law enforcement training and experience, “How to Be a Great Cop” shares the insights and experiences of officers who have been there. Written to provide readers with an accurate view of the realities of the job, the book outlines surviving on the street and the emotional and medical implications of the job, as well as the history of law enforcement, dealing with the criminal justice system and guidelines for what it takes to be an outstanding officer. (From the publisher)
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