Policing and the Law

There is no question that the law is intimately linked with policing. What defines the police is their ability to enforce the law. Beyond using the law as a tool in police work, the police also receive a great deal of oversight from the law. Practically everything that police officers do is potentially subject to judicial review. From the probable cause needed to make an arrest to the proper entrance exams that do not racially discriminate, the professional lives of police officers are mired in the law. This book contains material that is vital to police officers. This book should appeal to both the officer on the street who needs some additional information about operational issues, such as when lockers of students can be searched or how long a person may be detained while a narcotics-sniffing dog is summoned, and to the administrator who must make decisions about hiring that are not discriminatory and must investigate his or her own officers for misconduct. This book is broken into two major decisions--operational aspects and the law, and administrative aspects and the law. Includes a review of Supreme Court decisions important to all police officers: Fourth Amendment issues in the war on drugs; no-knock searches, and traffic stops Legal issues of roadblocks and check points Whether civil lawsuits against police dampen officers' willingness to make arrests The use of canines in search and seizure Investigations concerning computers and the Internet How police officers and police agencies react to changes in the legal environment Privacy rights of police officers as they relate to employer authority to regulate police employee conduct, searches and seizures involving police officers in the workplace, drug testing of police officers, medical fitness issues (including AIDS), and employer regulation of police sexual conduct Affirmative action and police selection, physical agility testing, and written selection tests Age limitations and discrimination of police officersJeffrey Walker is the author of 'Policing and the Law', published 2001 under ISBN 9780130284358 and ISBN 0130284351.