Handbook of Policing (2Nd Edition)

Abstract

Edited by Dave Phillips, Sheffield Hallam University HANDBOOK OF POLICING (2ND EDITION) Newburn, T (eds) (2008) Cullompton: William pp912 pbk, ISBN: 978-1-84392-323-7, £34.99 Tim Newburn's (2003) 'Handbook of Policing' provided the first comprehensive overview of the subject of policing and police studies in the UK and quickly became essential reading for practitioners, students and scholars in this burgeoning field of inquiry. The second edition of the v Handbook of Policing' introduces the rich critical history of policing that has developed since the 1970s and juxtaposes this with the more administrative research that has emanated out of the Home Office since the 1980s on policy and police practice. Alongside this, contemporary discourse about police ethics, culture, organisation and theory are included, although they perform a supplementary function to the central focus on history, policy and practice. The handbook is split into four main sections: comparative and historical perspectives; context; doing policing; plus themes and debates. The aim of the second edition is to provide an update on the rapidly evolving area of policing in the UK where ever-changing political and policy developments make maintaining contemporary relevance particularly difficult. The second edition of the handbook offers new chapters on policing Scotland and Northern Ireland that extend the breadth of coverage beyond England and Wales whilst also introducing newly authored chapters on police cultures, policing terrorism, performance management and forensic science. The Handbook represents an ideal choice for core reading on any police studies course or module. The breadth of coverage of the field ensures that anyone new to police studies can find useful introductions to the subject whilst others can fill in gaps in their understanding or simply update their knowledge. For example, the addition of Waddington's discussion of the police killing of Charles de Menezes in 2005 provides a contemporary relevance that will please practitioners, students and academics to equally substantial degrees. The artificial creation of subsets of policing sometimes detaches the academic discussion from the complexity of 'real world' policing yet this is difficult to avoid. Other recent additions to the market (for example, McLaughlin's (2007) vThe New Policing' and Rowe's (2008) v Introduction to Policing') provide a clearer theoretical perspective on developments in policing although this is partly due to their more manageable size and single authorship. For example, the removal of Janet Chan's chapter on new technologies leaves a gap in the key themes section on 'policing through surveillance', an area that has experienced significant expansion in the UK over the last two decades and which remains pivotal to public debate about what is an acceptable amount of policing in the future. That said, other contemporary areas such as the growth of summary justice through the use of automated surveillance cameras and on-the-spot (or 'through the post') fines are highlighted with great zeal. A wide range of authors provide a comprehensive introduction to policing in the UK but, as in the first edition, this broad focus on content leaves the handbook feeling like it is missing a critical edge when attempting to dissect the politically contested nature of policing. This is a longstanding issue in the area of police studies where access to essential information is informally regulated, to varying degrees, by the Police Service and the Home Office. …