To Protect and to Serve: A History of Police in America

This readable book provides a comprehensive and detailed survey of the development of police organization, theory, and practice—and its role in American history. It examines how police have tried to maintain law and order in a democratic society, noting successes, failures, and continuing problems since the colonial period. KEY TOPICS Specific chapter topics cover police in Early America; the development of municipal policing in the Northeast; policing race and violence in the South; policing the American West; urbanization, progressivism, and police; the shift to police as profession; police and technology; leaders in the field, and policing to the 21st century. For police academy training programs and police department libraries, as well as law enforcement agencies and professional organizations.