Working the Street: Police Discretion and the Dilemmas of Reform

by Michael K. Brown

Now available in paperback, this provocative study examines the street-level decisions made by police, caught between a sometimes hostile community and a maze of departmental regulations. Probing the dynamics of three sample police departments, Brown reveals the factors that shape how officers wield their powers of discretion. Chief among these factors, he contends, is the highly bureaucratic organization of the modern police department.

A new epilogue, prepared for this edition, focuses on the structure and operation of urban police forces in the 1980s.

"Add this book to the short list of important analyses of the police at work....Places the difficult job of policing firmly within its political, organizational, and professional constraints...Worth reading and thinking about." —Crime & Delinquency

"An excellent contribution...Adds significantly to our understanding of contemporary police." —Sociology

"A critical analysis of policing as a social and political phenomenon....A major contribution." —Choice

392 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

Reviews

[Savanna Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: this book is very frank. The use of statistics to synthesize data in this mixed-methods study is appallingly underrated for it's streamlined use of a well-tested but usually awkwardly handled approach to the use of survey-like data from key informant interviews. See the appendix, the main text is not a math-oriented book. Puts compstat to shame for its use of data science methods to refine police know-how about what is on the table for ways and means of reforming police work. And much more accessible to a lay audience than Malcolm Sparrow's most recent book on police reform, which appears to be geared more towards insiders.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

An empirical study of how police officers use discretion and what factors influence that discretion. Unsurprisingly, several factors influence discretion, but no one is overly dominant. Although very methodical, it is written in an overly verbose and, at times, difficult to understand tone, which obscures its message.