Product Review

This casebook provides rich context for the study of rules regulating police activity, because it presents not only the most important case law, but also relevant legislative, historical, empirical, and comparative materials. After a chapter describing general perspectives on police investigation, it features chapters on searches and seizures, interrogation, identification procedures, undercover practices, and remedies for rule violations. The unique aspects of the book include:

•  Excerpts describing the history of the police and sociological materials regarding police demographics, attitudes, training, and practices;
•  Materials designed to familiarize students with alternative methods of regulating the police, including state law, departmental regulations, and international treaties;
•  Materials on colonial and early eighteenth century approaches to police regulation that may be relevant to constitutional interpretation;
•  Empirical information about societal expectations of privacy, the effect of Miranda warnings, the accuracy of identification procedures, and the efficacy of undercover work, the exclusionary rule, and damages actions, among other topics;
•  Descriptions of the theory and practice of police regulation in other countries, including not only those following the English tradition, but Germany, France, Denmark, India, and Japan;
• Over 100 problems that promote lawyering skills;
•  A negotiation exercise and motions, transcripts, and other documents from an actual case that raise Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment issues; and
• Notes on a wide range of emerging issues, including data mining, national security surveillance, and problem-solving policing.