Book Review: Birzer, M. L., & Roberson, C. (2007). Policing Today and Tomorrow. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. 390 pp

• Author: Mark Button
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808328817
• Published date: 01 September 2009
• Date: 01 September 2009

Birzer, M. L., & Roberson, C. (2007). Policing Today

and Tomorrow. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. 390 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016808328817

In much of the industrialized English-speaking world there has been a huge growth in crimino-

logical and police-related courses over the last two decades. There has also been much investment

in police education to professionalize the practice of policing and an associated increase in police

studies provision in higher education establishments. It is in that context that Policing Today and

Tomorrow should be viewed as a readily accessible introductory text for police studies for the Amer-

ican market, particularly for those students wishing to pursue careers in policing or those already in

law enforcement embarking on police studies courses.

Indeed, in the United Kingdom in many academic departments there is a common debate as to

how to treat police studies. Is it to provide the basis for more effective policing and oriented as a

vocational course? Or is it to be a critical account of the practice of policing using the latest research

and theoretical perspectives? Policing Today and Tomorrow is clearly in the former camp, but it is

not a police training manual, offering more of an insight and analysis into the practice of policing in

America. In doing so, there is also reference to research literature to offer a critical insight on some

of the practices and controversies of the day covering issues that are often neglected in texts, such as

the recruitment of minority groups and the impact of police work on the individual.

The book is divided into 13 chapters. Chapter 1 begins with an introduction to the role of the

police covering the history, the myths, and realities of policing and the functions amongst others.

Aside from the history, it is very focused on the United States and some reference to the non-Anglo

traditions of policing might have been appropriate. Chapter 2 goes on to examine police systems cov-

ering some of the legal issues relating to accountability as well as policing styles. This leads readily

on to chapter 3, which examines community policing. This provides a very informative and acces-

sible introduction to this as well as some of the research evaluating different forms of this approach.

In chapter 5 of the book, police culture is tackled alongside the related issues of police misconduct

and deviance. Again it is focused very much on the United States and given the wealth of research

across the globe, which shows many similarities, I would have liked to have seen some reference to

that literature. The book follows on from this chapter to explore legal issues in policing and policing

a diverse community in the next two chapters.

In chapters 7 and 8, personnel issues related to policing become the subject, with a comprehensive

overview of recruitment and selection followed by police training and development. These are fol-

lowed by a very good chapter on women and minorities in policing, which links on very well from

the previous two chapters. It is interspersed—as the rest of the book—with reference to some of the

key legal cases, which will be very useful to students.

Some of the more mundane aspects of policing are examined in the next two chapters with police

operations followed by police management. These are also very informative and will provide those

readers with limited understanding of what the police do and how they are organized with some very

useful information.

The final two chapters cover issues in policing, with the very last dedicated solely to terrorism and

policing. The former chapter covers issues very much focused on the individual police officers, such

as stress, suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse, and biohazards. These are issues in need of exposure in

police studies, and often neglected, so it is good to see them explored so well in this book. However, I

would really have liked to have seen a chapter that also explored some of the issues confronting the

police more generally, such as privatization, civilianization, performance management, cooperation

and partnership, overregulation, and not just terrorism.

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