Winner of the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award
“An important book about the 21st-century rules of engagement for counter-terrorism, police work, surveillance and crime prevention . . . Unwarranted shakes us from what we've allowed ourselves to accept.” —Matt Welch, The Wall Street Journal
“Broad . . . accessible . . . [Unwarranted] looks beyond the lethal use of force at many other ways the Fourth Amendment protection against ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’ has been ignored or stretch in the name of public safety.” —Bill Keller, The New York Times Book Review
“Unwarranted goes fairly deeply into legal intricacies, but Friedman’s prose is crystal clear and conversational in tone. Case examples give the book its narrative meat.” —Maria Browning, Nashville Scene
“Barry Friedman unravels the current state of out-of-control policing in an incisive, provocative, and beguiling overview and remedy.” —Shelf Awareness
“Friedman's lively writing and clarity of expression enable him to make the thicket of applicable Fourth Amendment law readily understandable for general readers, helpfully illuminated by the personal stories behind the case law. At once creative and conservative, Friedman offers a timely blueprint for recovering democratic control of local and national law enforcement.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Drawing on landmark court cases, extensive history, and incisive analysis, Friedman takes a hard look at current problems and proposes astute and well-researched solutions in favor of more 'democratic and constitutional' policing . . . [Unwarranted] is the definitive guide to contemporary policing and its necessary reforms.” —Publishers Weekly
“A powerful manifesto against unbalanced policing methodologies and an illuminating and sobering critique of political and legal forces in the U.S.” —Booklist
“This important, accessible book diagnoses the many pathologies of modern policing in contexts ranging from inner-city crime to terrorism. Barry Friedman lays the responsibility for our policing ills somewhat on courts but primarily on us, the policed. He provides fresh, concrete guidance for how judges and the
American people can make modern policing democratically accountable, lawful, and effective.”
—Jack Goldsmith, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of law at Harvard University
“The relationship between citizens and the police is one of the most urgent constitutional questions in American life today. In this path-breaking book, Barry Friedman argues that, instead of judges reviewing police conduct after the fact, citizens should take responsibility for police conduct before the fact. By insisting that all citizens reflect about the Constitutional provisions that govern how the police act, Friedman makes a passionate case that the responsibility for policing the police is a job for all of us.”
—Jeffrey Rosen, President & CEO, National Constitution Center
“In Unwarranted, Barry Friedman takes us on a journey through America’s problems with policing and surveillance to confront a hard but necessary truth. Our nation’s problem with policing reflects a failure of democratic engagement. This book makes a necessary and, until now, missing contribution to our national conversation about policing reform.”
—Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
“At a time when policing in America is at a crossroads, Barry Friedman provides much-needed insight, analysis, and direction in his thoughtful new book. Unwarranted illuminates many of the often ignored issues surrounding how we police in America and highlights why reform is so urgently needed. This revealing book comes at a critically important time and has much to offer all who care about fair treatment and public safety.” —Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
“In this thoughtful, reform-minded book, Barry Friedman shows us how advances in technology have dramatically expanded both the capabilities of the police and the means by which citizens can hold them accountable. But he also shows us how today’s concerns over mass surveillance and unwarranted searches of electronic evidence are just the latest instances of problems in policing that have persisted for lack of democratic governance of the profession. Friedman’s argument for real democratic accountability in policing is fresh and offers hope. Unwarranted should be a companion for any citizen who wants to move beyond tabloid news and the protest line and join the nation’s police leaders in the evolution of the public profession most present in people’s everyday lives.” —Brandon del Pozo, Chief of Police, Burlington, Vermont.
“The notoriously broad discretion that police routinely exercise in enforcing the law has long been accepted as a necessary element of the job. Unwarranted calls into question that received wisdom, and makes a stirring case for holding accountable the most powerful public servants in most people’s daily lives.” —David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and author of No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System
“Unwarranted is the taxonomy of policing this country has been waiting for. In a sweeping overview of policing problems spanning illegal police searches, warrantless stops, intrusive surveillance, and the toxic impact of race and class on such intrusions, Friedman painstakingly lays out the reasons we have—as a society—largely avoided policing the police. This is a long-overdue indictment of the ways in which our courts, legislatures, and even We the People have absolved ourselves of the responsibility of repairing our system of policing, and a call to action that reminds us that we alone can effectuate lasting, and attainable, reform.” —Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Legal Correspondent, Slate
“In this remarkably lucid and persuasive book, Barry Friedman forces us to confront the most difficult, uncomfortable question about policing: not what should the police do, but what do we want the police to do? With insight and passion, Unwarranted lays out a vision for truly democratic policing. A must-read.” —Chris Hayes, host of All In with Chris Hayes and author of Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy
10/31/2016
Friedman (The Will of the People), an NYU professor and founder of the Policing Project, instructively examines what he identifies as the crisis in 21st-century U.S. policing. Drawing on landmark court cases, extensive history, and incisive analysis, Friedman takes a hard look at current problems and proposes astute and well-researched solutions in favor of more “democratic and constitutional” policing. He examines contentious law enforcement practices, including stop-and-frisk, and government surveillance in an era of hyperconnectivity and terrorism. Citing ample evidence of government overreaching, he makes a strong case for more police transparency and accountability and for more “public input and debate” into designing policies and laws that protect civilians’ rights. He takes an in-depth look at law enforcement violations of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and includes a history of the search warrant and accounts of how police and courts have enabled invasive searches. He argues that the courts have problematically been assigned the role of restoring justice but not the power to check outdated laws, legislators who pander to political whims, and law enforcement agencies that go largely unchecked. This book is the definitive guide to contemporary policing and its necessary reforms. Agent: Christy Fletcher, Fletcher & Company. (Feb.) This review has been corrected to reflect updated agent information.
01/01/2017
Friedman (Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law & founding director, Policing Project, New York Univ. Sch. of Law; The Will of the People) brings to light issues in the current policing environment. Relying on recent cases, he argues that the state of U.S. policing is far from democratic and constitutional, instead frequently encouraging mass surveillance and spying through the use of closed-circuit TV, location tracking, and predicative tactics, as well as excessive force, including stop-and-frisk and SWAT searches. Friedman is hopeful that through the public's engagement with police officials, and through public policy on the use of force, racial bias, and the adoption of new technologies, that a more just form of policing is possible. The book also provides historical analytics of the search warrant and outlines the ways in which police and courts have been permitted to conduct invasive searches. Includes extensive case index notes. VERDICT Friedman is successful in presenting compelling arguments for policing reform, incorporating current issues such as the Michael Brown shooting, the case of Anthony Graber, and Black Lives Matter as support. Most suitable for law or criminology students. [See Prepub Alert, 8/8/16.]—Nathalie Reid, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
★ 2016-11-15
A law professor diagnoses the ills of American policing and prescribes a healthy dose of sunlight."Policing in the United States—from the overzealous beat cop all the way to the NSA—is out of control," writes Friedman (Law/New York Univ. School of Law; The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution, 2009, etc.), and the fault lies not with the police but with us. Unlike most other governmental functions, policing largely proceeds without democratically endorsed rules provided in advance; legislatures and courts have shown neither the inclination nor the capacity to provide this guidance. Police have therefore been left to define their own, possibly unwritten, policies, which have often been kept secret. Too often, the result is a trampling of individual rights that would never have been publicly approved and a waste of resources on ineffective procedures. Among other proposals, Friedman advocates that courts impose more rigorous demands for warrants supported by probable cause for searches and surveillance and refuse to support policing techniques or uses of new technologies that have not been explicitly authorized by local or state authority. The author presents an incisive analysis of the pitfalls that have frustrated previous attempts to regulate policing and shows how attempts by the courts to do the job have resulted instead in an erosion of constitutional protections and individuals' rights to privacy. He also considers the special problems of oversight presented by the recent transition of policing from reactive pursuit of wrongdoers to regulatory mass surveillance intended to deter crime. Friedman's lively writing and clarity of expression enable him to make the thicket of applicable Fourth Amendment law readily understandable for general readers, helpfully illuminated by the personal stories behind the case law. At once creative and conservative, Friedman offers a timely blueprint for recovering democratic control of local and national law enforcement.
