Contemporary Policing: Personnel, Issues & Trends [Illustrated] [Paperback]

M. L. Dantzker Ph.D (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0750697369 | ISBN-13: 978-0750697361

Contemporary Policing: Personnel, Issues, & Trends is an edited volume that provides students with a complete picture of current policing issues. The collection draws on the ideas of several well known academics and scholars. Arranged thematically, this text fully covers the standard topics in the field, including stress, education and training, professional ethics, community policing, and use of force. It then goes a step further than traditional texts to cover current topics such as women in policing, minority groups, criminal analysis, and technological changes. The chapters are concise, clearly written and combine rich frameworks with illustrations drawn from real experience.

M. L. Dantzker is an associate professor of Political Science at Georgia Southern University teaching in the Justice Studies Program, specializing in policing. He received his Ph.D. in Administration from the University of Texas-Arlington. Prior to entering academia full-time, Dr. Dantzker was a police officer in Indiana and in Texas. He has researched, consulted, and published in the areas of police stress, police job satisfaction, educational issues, criminal justice statistics, and police chief requirements.

In-depth discussion of today's most important policing topics
Comprehensive coverage of standard law enforcement issues
Compilation of ideas from several well-known academics and scholars

Editorial Reviews

Review

Prof. Jim Hafeman, Director CJ, Colby Community College, Kansas
"I used the book in Introduction to Law Enforcement courses. The book was highly superficial and did not blend well with the next level above the introduction to criminal justice course. Most of the book added little to the knowledge bases of the students, was inacurrate in some areas, and was extremely dull reading for the students - it received poor evaluations. Texts need to be written accourding to their level of use; Contemporary Policing or Intro to L.E. is usually a 200 level course where critical thinking, discussion, and interaction with professionals begins.
A few thoughts if you don't mind. If we take all those law enforcement text book authors and put their works together, tossing out the inaccuracies and unqualified opinions, we'd be getting somewhere. If you pick up any five texts written as an introductory to law enforcement text, you could glean a great deal of good information from them collectively but not individually. Contemporary readings and other compiled works usually make good supplements to these other texts - but why should they have to be used to supplement a course text?!
We usually have a course for sixteen weeks; fourteen "good" weeks or less in reality. Texts are expensive, seldom read, and never highlighted because of their potential resale potential. I guess if I were an author/publisher I would want new texts every year; providing annual updates, instructor's notes, overheads, and software and/or Power Point presentations to entice renewals. The only way to do that would be to compile a workbook type of text. The workbook(s) - could be a series - would include a highly logical order, plenty of new information, interesting cases and scenarios, pictures (students love pictures), and end of chapter worksheets that may be torn out and turned into the instructor every week. Another thought on the latter, since most classes meet more than once per week: break each chapter up into three of four sections, have a worksheet for each section and one for the chapter summation. Also, make the workbook interactive, e.g., access the author's web site and enter a key word found during the students' 'alleged' reading exercises. (This may actually compel students to read and use a highlighter). Keywords could be new terminology, USSC decesions, etc. Perhaps the section worksheets could be accessed, filled out by the student, and forwarded to the instructor via e-mail. This would provide further benefit because students wishing to enter the CJ field must have a high level of computer compentency."

It was a good book but it did not cover all the subjects I wanted to teach.

From the Publisher

Contemporary Policing: Personnel, Issues, & Trends is an edited volume that provides students with a complete picture of current policing issues. The collection utilizes the ideas of several well known academics and scholars. Arranged thematically, this text fully covers the standard topics in the field, including stress, education and training, professional ethics, community policing, and use of force. It then goes a step further to cover current topics such as women in policing, minority groups, criminal analysis, and technological changes. The chapters are concise, clearly written and combine rich frameworks with illustrations drawn from real experience. PERSONNEL: Women Police Officers Minority Groups in Law Enforcement Recruitment and Retention Education and Training: No Longer Just a Badge and a Gun ISSUES: Stress and the Badge Being a Police Officer: Part of a Profession? Professional Ethics and Policing TRENDS: Criminal Analysis Community Policing: Major Issues and Unanswered Questions Use of Force: A Matter of Control Re-Blueing the Police: Technological Changes and Law Enforcement Practices.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann (March 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750697369
• ISBN-13: 978-0750697361
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,900,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)