Seven Ways to Fix Policing NOW: Building Trust, Authentic Partnerships, and Safe Communities - Paperback

by Kathleen O'Toole (Author), Robert Peirce (Author)

This practical guide to policing reform presents a call to action to address a threefold crisis in policing - a catastrophic loss of trust between police and the communities they serve; a sharp increase in violent crime after decades of decline; and a serious recruitment and retention challenge depleting police departments across the United States. The authors also recognize that, while these issues are now top of mind, policing needs far-reaching reform in order to respond to changes in society and its expectations, changes in crime and other threats to public safety, new technologies, and developments in best practice. Most reform to date has been piecemeal, as the book describes. The time has come to take a comprehensive look at every aspect of policing.

Author Biography

Kathleen O'Toole is a career police officer, lawyer, and PhD. She rose through the ranks and served as Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety, Boston Police Commissioner, Chief Inspector of Ireland's national police, and Seattle Police Chief. Robert Peirce is an international policing consultant and former diplomat and secretary for external relations in the Hong Kong government. Both worked on policing reform commissions in Northern Ireland (1998-9) and the Republic of Ireland (2017-18)