Principled Policing

The author of this book describes how it is all too easy for quite 'ordinary' police officers to descend into behaviour which is difficult to comprehend, as a result of state manoeuvring, police culture, and what he believes is a lack of any fundamental values for police work. Through an account of what Alderson calls 'high police', and by way of examples from around the world - including Northern Ireland, Tiananmen Square, Nazi Germany, J. Edgar Hoover's days at the FBI, and the British miners' strike of 1984/85 - he advocates the creation of a code of principles designed to act as a touchstone for police everywhere.