The Police and the State

Security, Social Cooperation, and the Public Good

Brandon del Pozo (Brown University, Rhode Island)

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Cambridge University Press
31 July 2024

Social issues & processes; Social welfare & social services; Crime & criminology; Criminal investigation & detection; Public administration

As we wrestle with the role and limits of policing, a political philosopher who spent over two decades as a New York City police officer and Vermont chief of police presents a normative account of what it means to police a pluralist democracy. Invoking his vast experience, Brandon del Pozo argues that we all have the prerogative to use force to protect others, but police embody the government's unique duty to do so effectively and with restraint. He recasts order maintenance as brokering and enforcing the fair terms of social cooperation in our public spaces, for the protection of minority interests, and for a society where diverse conceptions of the good can flourish. The reasons why we police, he says, must be ones that all citizens can evaluate as equals. His book explains the democratic commitments of policing, and lays the groundwork for meaningful police innovation and reform.

By: Brandon del Pozo (Brown University Rhode Island)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009215459
ISBN 10: 1009215450
Pages: 260
Publication Date: 31 July 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. The role of the police; 2. The first power of the police: impartial protection and rescue; 3. The second power of the police: arrest for adjudication; 4. The third power of the police: brokering and enforcing social cooperation; 5. Democratic priorities, relationships, and tensions: seven cases of policing; 6. The bases of, and reasons for seeking, police legitimacy; 7. Procedural justice in policing revisited; 8. Policing with public reason; 9. Policing populism, protecting pluralism; 10. Primary goods, policing states in transition, and natural experiments.

Brandon del Pozo served for nearly two decades in the New York City Police Department, where he commanded two patrol precincts, and then as the chief of police of Burlington, Vermont. He researches policing, public health, and drug policy at Brown University.

Reviews for The Police and the State: Security, Social Cooperation, and the Public Good

'Brandon Del Pozo's book utilizes a Rawlsian framework to provide a normative framework for policing. To date, his is the most detailed and sophisticated attempt to do so. Whether one ultimately accepts this approach or some alternative, such as a rights-based approach, his book is a significant contribution to police ethics.' Seumas Miller, Charles Sturt University, Delft University of Technology and University of Oxford