Book Review: The end of policing

• DOI: 10.1177/1057567719834334
• Date: 01 September 2021
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Author: Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Vitale, A. S. (2017).

The end of policing. London, England: Verso. 272 pp. $26.95, ISBN 978-1-784-78289-4.

Reviewed by: Isabelle Bartkowiak-The

´ron, Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, University of

Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

DOI: 10.1177/1057567719834334

Over the past few years, there have been many instances of horrific, fatal incidents involving police

use of force, the unjustified, misplaced use of lethal weaponry when de-escalation techniques would

have produced more positive outcomes or where communication was entirely missing.

In The End of Policing, Alex Vitale does what many of us have neither wanted nor ventured to do:

He lays it all out for us to ponder. His book is largely U.S. based, with the occasional reference to

other international jurisdictions. The principles, however, are widely transferable to other geopoli-

tical contexts.

As I write this review, the neighbors on the next-door balcony are having a heated discussion

about the role of the French Compagnies Re´publicaines de Se´curite´,

1

the extent to which police is

protecting a country’s citizenry and the extent to which police need protection. The gilets jaunes

episode in France has reignited debates about social control and the role of police. While the debates

about the state of policing are widespread, the one next door annoys me profoundly. It is largely

uninformed, and my neighbors are fighting over surface considerations. I am musing on the idea of

doing what another reviewer of the book suggested, namely that The End of Policing is one of those

volumes that you can give to someone who needs to know more about policing. This is the first

strength of the book. It is well written and well researched for the points it is trying to make. It is also

highly and quickly readable.

For those who are more educated about what police do, this book is useful. Some of the book’s

contents deserve to be read again and again, whether you agree with them or want to build an

argument against them.

About the former, there are many points on which any scholar would agree. One of these

concerns, the remit of policing, has expanded unfettered for many decades. To some extent, this

has been the result of poorly planned public policies and decades of governance rationalization that

have left the burden of broad problem-solving with police. Alarmist, conservative lock-them-up-

and-throw-away-the-key political platforms have also created the illusion that strong law enforce-

ment is the answer to most social ills. Vita le exposes the uncomfortable extent to wh ich such

political slogans and positioning have created unrealistic expectations about the role and function

of contemporary police. Page after page of confrontations on how much “we” got it wrong, is

irrefutable, and therefore thought-provoking. What is disturbing is that we have known all this for

decades. The cases of Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, and Stephen Lawrence raised as much anger

and distrust in the police then as the case of Eric Garner does now. Vitale runs what almost looks like

a census of these cases. The number i s alarming. Reading all of them, pla ced together in one

compendium is deeply frustrating.

International CriminalJustice Review

2021, Vol. 31(3) 347-356

ª2019 Georgia State University

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