An Introduction to Police Operations and Methods: The Connection to Law and History

Authors

R. Alan Thompson, University of Southern MississippiFollow
Anne Hudson, University of Southern MississippiFollow

Files

Description

An Introduction to Police Operations and Methods: The Connection to Law and History textbook provides an overview of the complex and evolving role of police in a modern democratic society. Police officers are expected to respond to the demands of competing constituencies and resolve complex societal and individual problems. The invocation of the formal criminal justice system and the use of force to accomplish lawful objectives is sometimes required. In order to understand how and why the police operate as they do, the history of organized law enforcement is examined. Attention is given to the selection and training of qualified officers. Given that patrol work and criminal investigations constitute a significant portion of the police function; police operations, behavior, and culture are also addressed. Underlying the day-to-day work of police officers are the pervasive issues of ethics and discretion that may lead to abuses of power, deviance, and, corruption. The text concludes with an overview of police and the rule of law by identifying significant Supreme Court decisions that have shaped the limits of law enforcement authority.

Publication Date

8-2017

Keywords

Police Operations, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Selection, Training, Patrol, Culture, Ethics, Discretion, Use of Force, Corruption, Law, History

Comments

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Thompson, R. Alan and Hudson, Anne, "An Introduction to Police Operations and Methods: The Connection to Law and History" (2017). Open Textbooks. 1.
https://aquila.usm.edu/textbooks/1