The Law of the Police, Second Edition provides materials and analysis for law school classes on policing and the law. It offers a resource for students and others seeking to understand and evaluate how American law governs police interactions with the public. The book provides primary materials, including cases, statutes, and departmental policies, and commentary and questions designed to help readers explore policing practices; the law that governs them; and the law’s consequences for the costs, benefits, fairness, and accountability of policing. Among other issues, the notes and questions encourage readers to consider the form and content of the law; how it might change; who is making it; and how the law affects policing. Part I introduces local policing—its history, its goals, and its problems; Part II considers the law that regulates criminal investigations; Part III addresses the law that governs street policing; and Part IV looks at policing’s legal remedies and reforms.
New to the Second Edition:
- New sections and materials on no-knock warrants, facial recognition technology, state regulation of pedestrian stops, alternatives to police-initiated traffic stops, state laws granting arrest authority, retaliatory arrest claims, state qualified immunity reform, private civil settlements for police reform, and community strategies to limit the scope of policing.
- New notes and materials on the role of prosecutors in shaping police conduct, the Second Amendment, the use of race in policing, policing homelessness, the impact of police unions and collective bargaining, and the Biden Administration’s pattern-or-practice suits.
- A recent federal indictment charging an officer with constitutionally excessive force.
- Updates to laws and notes to reflect new data, laws, and criminological and legal research.
- Additional examples of controversial police encounters to illustrate legal issues and concepts.