Robert E. Worden
"Todd Douglas adds a perspective from the front lines of policing to the contemporary conversations about police reform. He blends research findings, illustrative case material, and practical insights to form a vivid picture of street-level policing—which is being pinched by conflicting public expectations, the mandate to enforce legislative prohibitions on psychoactive substances, legal limits on police authority, bureaucratic demands for productivity, and the wretched realities of the street. Douglas produces a gripping and wide-ranging assessment of contemporary challenges, setting American policing in the broad historical, legal, and systemic contexts essential to understanding recurrent controversies."
Graeme R. Newman
"At last a real policeman, experienced in every aspect of a job that demands an enormous variety of skills—how to shoot straight and when to use force, making split second decisions, thinking about the long-term consequences of police action, remaining calm in the face of violence or abuse—has taken to the pen, demonstrating that it is greater than the sword. This is a welcome book that offers much sage advice to police officers, their managers, and the politicians who exploit them. More important, Douglas, drawing on his personal experience and his mastery of current police research, paints a balanced, reasoned assessment of the state of policing in America today and its prospects for the future. We citizens who in theory are served by the police as they 'protect and serve,' as it is so often inscribed on police vehicles, should sit up and take note. Buried in that slogan is the crux of the matter that Douglas unmasks and dissects: how, in a democratic society, the police should maintain order without being (or appearing to be) bullies."
Alan Dershowitz
"We need more books like this, that provide an insider perspective on policing, by experienced and responsible critics of current police practices."
William A. Jacobson
“Balancing society’s need for police protection and the constitutional rights of citizens is one of the most pressing political issues of our time. Todd Douglas does an excellent job covering both topics in a way that informs the reader without lecturing, bringing history and the law together in a way few others have done. I highly recommend The Police in a Free Society to those new to the subject, as well as to those already schooled in policing and the Constitution.”
