POLICE BRUTALITY AND PROFILING

Police work places extraordinary responsibility in ordinary human hands. Officers may be required to enter dangerous homes, confront violence, locate missing children, respond to mental-health crises, investigate serious crimes, and make decisions in seconds. Society therefore needs capable and courageous police institutions. But because police also possess the power to stop, search, detain, arrest, restrain, and sometimes use lethal force, society must demand equally extraordinary standards of legality and accountability.
This book does not begin from the assumption that policing is inherently abusive, nor does it assume that allegations against police are automatically true. It begins from a democratic principle: public power must be justified. The same principle protects citizens from abuse and protects professional officers from indiscriminate accusation.
The chapters combine conceptual analysis with case studies. Each case is used to ask broader questions about supervision, organizational culture, race, protest, evidence, force, disability, police wellness, public trust, and reform.