This book analyses police reform in Scotland, demonstrating the key role experts can play in strengthening democratic accountability of the police to the communities they serve.

How does an authoritarian state reform its police force following a transition to democracy? In 1998, Indonesia, the third largest country in the world, faced just such a challenge. Policing had long been managed under the jurisdiction of the military, as an instrument of the Suharto regime – and with Suharto abruptly removed from office, this was about to change. Here we see how it changed, and how far these changes were for the better. Based on direct observations by a scholar who was involved in the last days of the New Order and who saw how the police responded to regime change, this book examines the police, the new regime, and how the police was disassociated from the military in Indonesia. Providing a comprehensive historical overview of the position of police in this change of regime, the book focuses on two key areas: the differences between local and national levels, and the politicisation associated with decentralisation. Arguing that the disassociation of the Indonesian National Police from the military has achieved only limited success, the book contends that there is continued impetus for the establishment of a professional police force and modern and democratic policing, which will entail effective public control of the police. A pioneering study of the police in Indonesia, examining key issues in the post-Suharto era, this book will be of interest to scholars of Southeast Asian politics and of policing and politics in the developing world.

In Police, Provocation, Politics, Deniz Yonucu presents a counterintuitive analysis of contemporary policing practices, focusing particular attention on the incitement of counterviolence, perpetual conflict, and ethnosectarian discord by the state security apparatus. Situating Turkish policing within a global context and combining archival work and oral history narratives with ethnographic research, Yonucu demonstrates how counterinsurgency strategies from the Cold War and decolonial eras continue to inform contemporary urban policing in Istanbul. Shedding light on counterinsurgency's affect-and-emotion-generating divisive techniques and urban dimensions, Yonucu shows how counterinsurgent policing strategies work to intervene in the organization of political dissent in a way that both counters existing alignments among dissident populations and prevents emergent ones. Yonucu suggests that in the places where racialized and dissident populations live, provocations of counterviolence and conflict by state security agents as well as their containment of both cannot be considered disruptions of social order. Instead, they can only be conceptualized as forms of governance and policing designed to manage actual or potential rebellious populations.

How does society hold its police to account? It’s a vital part of upholding law and liberty but changing modes of policing delivery and new technologies call for fresh thinking about the way we guard our guards. This much-needed new book from leading criminology professor Michael Rowe, part of the ‘Key Themes in Policing’ series, explores issues of governance, discipline and transparency, ranging across subjects including ethics, governance, discipline and transparency. The landmark new study: • Showcases how social change and rising inequalities make it more difficult to ensure meaningful accountability; • Addresses the impact of Evidence-Based Policing strategies on the direction and control of officers; • Sets out a game-changing agenda for ensuring democratic and answerable policing. For policing students and practitioners, it’s an essential guide to modern-day accountability.

An updated survey of the history, sociology and legal-political aspects of Britain's police force. Discussing the effects of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1986) and recent developments in police accountability, it looks at the current state of policing, reform initiatives and future trends.

What kind of democracy will emerge in Mexico when the current levels of violence are brought under control? Will democratic reformers gain strength in the new equilibrium between government and criminal organizations? Or will corruption tilt the balance toward criminal interests? In the context of these questions, John Bailey explores the ¿security trap¿ in which Mexico is currently caught¿where the dynamics of crime, violence, and corruption conspire to override efforts to put the country on a path toward democratic governance.

How do government arrangements emerge? When and how does individual agency turn into collective agency? How do sensory experiences of violence, instability, etc affect the configuration of governance arrangements? When, why, and how are governance arrangements institutionalized? This book seeks to contribute to a non-normative conceptualization of the emergence and transformation of government arrangements, and addresses the under-theorization of actors and agency in conventional governance theories. The editors and contributors theorize the concept of governance more concretely by analyzing the key actors and arrangements that define states of governance across different places and by examining its performance and development in particular settings and time periods. Each contribution to the edited volume is based on a case-study drawn from Africa, though the book argues that the core issues identified remain the same across the world, though in different empirical contexts. The contributions also range across key disciplines, from anthropology to sociology to political science. This ground-breaking volume addresses governance arrangements, discusses how social actors form such arrangements, and concludes by synthesizing an actor-centered understanding of political articulation to a general theory of governance. Scholars across disciplines such as political science, development studies, African studies, and sociology will find the book insightful.