With reference to India.

Policing in the US and many western nations is in an era of crisis, facing extensive calls for reformation and change. This edited book outlines the major challenges and changes needed to achieve a more stable future for the policing profession and police organizations. The chapters come from innovative police leaders and officers as well as academics with subject matter expertise, to provide insight into how reform can be done with the police. It focusses on how leaders should understand and approach their role during times of instability and uncertainty. It starts with an examination of how policing reached this state of crisis and discusses some interviews conducted with police leaders, particularly chiefs as agents of change and reform. This is followed by chapters from several veteran police leaders and personnel describing some of the factors that brought policing to this critical time of change and reform, how has policing evolved in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and how that impacts the current environment, and some potential strategies to create meaningful change while considering unintended consequences. The following chapters from academics seek to define paths that policing can take toward needed changes that will increase legitimacy, trust, and equality of policing services. It speaks to students, academics and professionals interested in police organization and administration, police leadership, and contemporary issues in policing and criminal justice.

It has become somewhat axiomatic to refer to the police as the ‘gatekeepers’ of the criminal justice system and thus as a mechanism for the provision of justice. And yet, when we conceptualize the police in this way, what is often taken for granted is the exact nature of that role and its larger social meaning. Indeed, we know that police deliver justice more efficiently to some and injustice to others. Rethinking Policing and Justice critically examines the role of policing (both state and non-state forms) in the provision of justice (and injustice). In essence, it presents work that highlights how different communities and groups have sought alternatives to policing, sometimes taking over the functions of policing. It also shows a variety of theoretical, methodology, and other approaches for the critical evaluation of law enforcement, highlighing different insights into alternative modes of policing, as we seek to understand and redraft the relationship between policing and justice. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Justice Review.