Customer Reviews

The Politics of the Police

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Reiners work in The Politics of the Police seems to embrace a Weberian methodology yet is always leans a little more to the left. The analysis is useful from an insiders perspective because no one gets let off the hook, however Reiner is clear he is not on the side of the administrative elites or anyone else who thinks contemporary policing can be analysed from a priviledged middle class standpoint. Reiner does not excuse police deviance at any point in his work, however he does not pretend that corruption in its contemporary form is like sin and has been with us for always and he promote the concept that corruption is socially constructed. Many 'progressive thinkers'have become lazy and complacent in analysing the police and have constantly supported ruling class and conservative positions by evaluating 'ordinary police' from such a broad set of rules and regulations that no police can escape the spotlight other than the heirarchy. Although these same progressive thinkers reject the notion that tougher laws and regulations can reduce crime they seem to have no difficulty in promoting the same concept to deal with police deviance.
Reiner is not one of these type of progressive thinkers. Perhaps he could deal more with the issue of female police but he would have to be careful. Many of the feminisms reject the notion that men can can comment on any aspect of the womens movement even if it is police and if Reiner ventured down the path of the women police he would be hard pressed to ignore the role of the Femocrats.

An interesting look at the politics that influence policing both current and historical. However, this is written from a very male point of view so don't expect much in the way of a gendered analysis of policing or focus on female officers. Some interesting content nonetheless, but be aware of it's limitations.