Police and Law Enforcement Books

Mr. Morrison's book should be a required study for every American child who is eleven or twelve years old, right at that crucial time when children are looking for self-empowerment outside of their families. Perhaps the images in this book would make them avoid the druggie street corners and police problems. Using his experience, common sense, and just plain street-wisdom, Mr. Morrison presents the negative dynamics of the city streets, and the police, in a way that may be easily understood. This is a must read for every parent and teacher.

About time for someone to shed a new light on one of the worst problems facing everyone. This book will really make one think about how important it is to try and stay out of trouble. It will also give a better understanding of why police officers function the way they do. It is written in a very easy to understand format, which can be easily understood by everyone. I feel that the author did a great job in trying to bridge the gap between the public and the law enforcement community. Any understanding is better than fear and stupidty. Everyone should read this book.

This book is great for anyone with a teenager that's just starting to drive and be out on their own. Using third-party stories to get his point across, Mr. Morrison cuts to the chase gently yet firmly. You're never too old to learn a lesson or two and I highly recommend that everyone read this book and use it as a tool for everyday life.

The numbers of women in law enforcement are declining, but remain vital to the force, and Patricia Lunneborg encourages participation through a set of interviews of women who work as police. Over 50 women officers across the country present their views of what drew them into the force, what keeps them on the job, and what are their daily satisfactions and special challenges on the job. From community policing to issues of having a family and fitting in work and family, WOMEN POLICE: PORTRAITS OF SUCCESS is an uplifting set of interviews remarking on just what makes policing a positive for female officers.

I'm a senior volunteer at the Sequim (WA) Police Department and work with two of the women featured in Women Police: Portraits of Success. Sergeant Sheri Crain and Reservist Tania Kohlman told me they see the book as an essential text for criminal justice programs and wish it had been available when they were in school. It answers all of the important questions a woman might ask: What does it take to become a cop, and succeed? What special skills do we women bring to the job? Is it more dangerous work for women than for men? How can we women compensate for our smaller size? What is it like to be a patrol cop? A detective? A sergeant? Would I prefer work in the field or in the office? If I rise up through the ranks, what will I find at the top? How do cops balance work and family? Do I have to be young to enter the field?

Women Police: Portraits of Success takes the reader on a ride-along through the world of policing, one story at a time. Toward the conclusion of the book, author Lunneborg blends their words into themes, the expected and unexpected. Women police join the force for the same reasons as men-for pay, benefits, variety, and to contribute something to society. Mentors are very important to success. Women must be physically fit to survive the academy, but prefer to use words over force to diffuse situations. Challenges by men begin in the academy, but acceptance usually follows as women prove their worth. They practice a consensual management style, delegate responsibilities down, display a nurturing attitude toward coworkers, place high value on community policing, and have found what it takes to balance work and family.

Will the book work as intended? Will the numbers go up? Will more women join law enforcement because of Portraits? If we can get it into their hands, the answer is yes. It belongs as a major text in every criminal justice course and as a recruitment tool of every career counselor and police department head. Not just because it could and should lead to parity, but because women's "leadership, perspectives, and involvement make us better at what we do," in the words of Sir John Stevens, head of New Scotland Yard. "This book [Portraits] celebrates their successes."

Bobbie Ryan
Sequim, WA

Patricia Lunneborg, a retired professor of psychology and women's studies, has written a third book on women police, and it's an eye-opener, even for a man. Maybe especially for a man.

Based upon interviews Lunneborg conducted with women police throughout the country, the book presents a running discussion and commentary upon many aspects of the profession: what attracts both younger and older women to the work, the difficulties they encounter in training and on the job, the problems the work causes in their personal relationships.

Sociologic books can be difficult for the nonspecialist, but that's not the case here. As they tell their stories, the individuals leap off the pages; the reader cheers for their triumphs and bleeds for their disasters. Most impressive is the manner in which one interviewee after another points out ways in which women at all levels of command broaden the capabilities of police forces, being able to deal more effectively than men with certain situations, most impressively those involving negotiations with troubled persons.

The writing is excellent, clear, and never bogs down in numerical detail or sociospeak. This book is a must for anyone interested in police work, but writers of both fiction and nonfiction involving police should go no further before digesting this material thoroughly. One can only hope that many police - men and women - will read and learn from it.

It's about someone who cares more about doing a good job then worrying about how much money he can make. If it wasn't easy to verify his many far out actions it would seem like fiction. He takes lots of chances.

"The Battle Behind the Badge" takes you on the streets of Kansas City with Captain Heinen as your partner. BEWARE! On your shift you'll not only encounter dangerous street thugs, but high-powered organized crime figures. When you return to the station house to file your reports, be prepared to battle corrupt police officials and egocentric city hall politicians. "The Battle Behind the Badge" is an excellent hardball account of Kansas City during a time when it was difficult to tell who the bad guy was. Captain Heinen is an honest cop who pays for his integrity by being yo-yoed up and down the ranks. He is Kansas City's "Serpico." This is a very good read that took a lot of guts to write.

then immediately read 1000 Years for Revenge by Peter Lance. Both books bear witness to the fact that FBI management is comprised of failed agents who hide behind desks because they can't make it as a Street Agent. They couldn't find a ham in a phone booth. They are wholly incapable of interviewing anybody;just read about NYC manager Carson Dunbar's treatment of an informant who knew plenty about both attacks on the WTC. Dunbar's incompetence is far worse than that of the military bosses at the time of the Pearl Harbor Attack. One point both authors omit is the high percentage of alcoholics in the management ranks of the FBI. Powers is a talented writer/historian whose earlier bio of Gay Edgar Hoover was truly monumental.

The FBI's original mission was to investigate and prosecute only the most serious crimes against the U.S. - but it was a mission forsaken almost from the beginning, and its abandonment has been accompanied by a history of political pressures, divisiveness, and political intervention from a wide range of fronts. Richard Gid Powers is one of the country's leading historians of national security and law enforcement, and in Broken: The Troubled Past & Uncertain Future Of The FBI, he offers a compelling history of both the Bureau and the forces working within and outside of it. Broken is strongly recommended as a controversial, intriguing history that is certain to provoke spirited discussion.

I am a Lead Chaplain for a State Police Department that is trying to find its way in organizing the chaplaincy. This is by far the best rescource I have founde. It is a must read for any chaplain or supervisor at any level of an agency that is either starting up or reviewing a chaplaincy program. It is thorough but it doesn't bog you down with needless details. It has answered questions I really didn't know to ask. MUST READ!!!

If a police department or county sheriff's department wants to have a chaplain program, this is the book that can guide a committee through the process. It is written by highly qualified chaplains with many years of experience. Good resources included.

Best price around, shipping was pretty fast too. Book is for my employment so I guess the content is what it's supposed to be. I usually find a good price here at amazon, but if you just want to rent(like for an employer's exam/school) [...]

In this fifth edition of his acclaimed text on law enforcement ethics, Edwin Delattre takes on some of the toughest moral problems facing police officers these days. And he does so with a great amount of clarity and tact.

Although some chapters probably do go on a bit longer than they should, this can be forgiven due to the amount of interesting content contained therein. Delattre has been teaching police ethics courses and working with law enforcement officers for over twenty years, so he definitely knows what he's talking about. He addresses difficult moral and ethical questions in a very succinct manner, without leaving the reader feel as if they are "left hanging," so to speak. His arguments are clear and highly readable, and above all else, they make sense!

I'd have to say that my favorite chapters are Chapter 9: Illegal Narcotics--Moral Issues and Public Policy (in which the author examines both sides of the dead horse drug legalization argument and reaches a very sensible conclusion), Chapter 15: Fatalism, Microcosms, and Therapeutic Reductions, and Chapter 17: Police, The O.J. Simpson Trial, and Race (which examines the Simpson trial in considerable detail, as well as the implications of the verdict). That said, every chapter in the book offers some wonderful insights.

This is highly recommended reading for anyone even remotely interested in law enforcement and, in particular, for those who have taken an interest in how some tough ethical issues that face police officers can be resolved.

A terrific memoir of a female cop, bodyguard, undercover operative, investigator, security consultant and imperfect human being. Ms. Davis is an amazing woman with tons of courage. She shares fascinating, moving and funny experiences from her diverse career and her life. A must-read for women in law enforcement or security. Should be assigned reading for our male colleagues, too. An enjoyable read for anyone. It's a very human story that doesn't get bogged down in professional details that would bore readers outside the field.

The Circuit is the true story of Jacquieline Davis, a young female London police officer who dared to enter the dangerous realm of covert operations. Jacquieline's duties would lead her to infiltrate a Columbian cocaine cartel, rescue hostages from Asia and the Middle East, protect a royal family, and more. A riveting and unforgettable true-life memoir, The Circuit is a welcome contribution to Criminology Studies reference collections, as well as being of intense interest to non-specialist general readers with an interest in how police approach such global problems as organized crime and political terrorism.

In reading over ten thousand books, I found this one to be really exceptional. Editor Yonah Alexander did an excellent job describing terrorism in its many forms, and how each different kind of group can be defeated. The only down-side in this book was all the groups that were discussed we not "apocalyptic terrorist", or groups of terrorists that are not religious in nature. This is an very detailed book about secular terrorist groups, from the Maoist Sendero Luminoso to the militant Japanese Red Army and the narco-terrorists of South America. Countries dealing with terrorism in this book include:

United States
Argentina
Peru
Colombia
Spain
United Kingdom
Israel
Turkey
India
Japan

A superb resources with lots of detailed information. A excellent and superior resource!

I thought that this book, an edited volume of experts from various countries on strategies to combat terrorism was done very well. The perspectives of (in-country) European, U.S., Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Asian analysts shows that terrorism is a global problem and there must be global solutions. The contributors also discuss the consequences of 9/11 so that adds to the helpfulness of the book.

This is an admirable and unusual work, of doctoral-level quality in its sources and methods, while also reflecting the professional intelligence career status of the author. It complements Amy Zegart's broader book, Flawed By Design, in an excellent manner. This book, focusing as it does on the CIA alone, and on internal sources not readily available to Zegart, fills a major gap in our understanding of the CIA's origins. The author excels at demonstrating both the actual as opposed to the mythical origins of the agency, and pays particular heed to the role of the Bureau of the Budget and that Bureau's biases and intentions. At the end of it all, the author notes that the agency was moving in controversial directions within four years of its birth, quickly disturbing Harry Truman, who is quoted as saying, twenty-years after the fact (in 1963), "For some time I have been distributed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational arm and at times a policy-making arm of Government....I never had any thought when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak-and-dagger operations." The author himself goes on to conclude that "the nature of the new threats and the revolution in information acquisition and dissemination have thrown traditional ways of intelligence organization, collection, evaluation, and distribution into question. ... CIA has entered the second half-century of its existence striving to avoid the fate of its OSS parent. In the process, it is groping for new missions and purposes while blighted by the legacy of its past derelictions, and while operating amid a rapidly changing global environment and technological revolution that are rendering its sources, methods, organizations, and mystique obsolete." I would hasten to add, as my own book documents, that we will always have hidden evil in the world and will always needs spies and secret methods to some extent, but this book, combining academic rigor with insider access, must surely give the most intelligent of our policy, legislative, and intelligence managers pause, for it very carefully documents the possibility that 75% of what we are doing today with secret sources and methods need not and should not be done. This book has much to offer those who would learn from history.

This is a well balanced, well documented, and definitive book on the beginnings of the current U.S. intelligence system. It also provides an interesting smaller window on the development of the entire post WWII U.S. National Security Establishment. For all its merits, this book is not for the general reader because it deals with a very small and specialized slice of modern American history. A more general and equally important book, "Flawed by Design" by Amy Zugert (Amazon.com) would be a better choice for individuals who don't wish to deal with the impressive amount of detail that this book provides. Nonetheless this book is indispensable to any anyone wishing to understand the process by which the current U.S. Intelligence System and specifically the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created.

As the author makes clear, the intelligence system that was established was very much the product of the disinterest that senior policy makers and the U.S. Congress had in intelligence matters in the wake of WWII. Excepting for intelligence professionals and some far seeing bureaucrats there were no strong constituencies or lobbying groups who cared about a national intelligence system. The author demonstrates that the CIA in particular was very much a creature of good and bad compromises that were imposed by the legitimate concerns of the military intelligence establishments, the FBI and State Department. Reading this book one is impressed with intelligence and dedication of the military and civilians who ultimately still ended up creating the dysfunctional intelligence system that we have today.

In the course of recounting this story, the author quotes an all but forgotten bureaucrat of the immediate post war era, named John Ohly, who, after reviewing the proposals for a CIA, pointed out that there was a lack, "of an intelligence concept which has been carefully thought out and which serves as a clear guide to the various collection and sources and which permits and requires the establishment of priorities as to areas and subjects." This reviewer knows of no more succinct statement on what is presently wrong with the U.S. Intelligence System.

I find this book when I search books about neighborhood watch project. Although there is just nine pages about this issue in this book, I browse the whole book because I feel it is very good. In this eight chapters book, it gives a whole picture about many major aspacts of theories and policies on crime prevention in modern society. In the first part, it introduces the concepts, the theories and policy of crime prevention. In the second part, it introduces crime prevention within the criminal justice system including the police and probation services, and crime prevention beyond the criminal justice system which includes local authorities, the voluntary sector, the informal sector and the private sector. It also introduces partnerships in crime prevention, community safety and the politics of crime prevention. Every chapter has an introduction and summary. It is a good text book and easy to understand. If a person curious like me want to "learn" something about what is going on in criminal prevention theories, policy and prctices since 60's through 90's, it will fullfill you curiosity. For example, I'm interested in the part of neighbourhood watch. In this book (paperback page 142 - 150), it mentions how this project expanded, developed in UK after transplanted from North America. By reading these pages, it's very useful that I find a dozen other authors who have published articles or books on this issue. Then I can find and read more archives.

I find this book when I search books about neighborhood watch project. Although there is just nine pages about this issue in this book, I browse the whole book because I feel it is very good. In this eight chapters book, it gives a whole picture about many major aspacts of theories and policies on crime prevention in modern society. In the first part, it introduces the concepts, the theories and policy of crime prevention. In the second part, it introduces crime prevention within the criminal justice system including the police and probation services, and crime prevention beyond the criminal justice system which includes local authorities, the voluntary sector, the informal sector and the private sector. It also introduces partnerships in crime prevention, community safety and the politics of crime prevention. Every chapter has an introduction and summary. It is a good text book and easy to understand. If a person curious like me want to "learn" something about what is going on in criminal prevention theories, policy and prctices since 60's through 90's, it will fullfill you curiosity. For example, I'm interested in the part of neighbourhood watch. In this book (paperback page 142 - 150), it mentions how this project expanded, developed in UK after transplanted from North America. By reading these pages, it's very useful that I find a dozen other authors who have published articles or books on this issue. Then I can find and read more archives.