POLS 245 - Politics and Policing

This course explores the role of the police in politics, with a particular focus on the function of policing in democracies. The democratic police ideal holds that officers “protect and serve” all members of their communities equally, that they are neutral actors without their own political interests. Press accounts of police shootings, as well as the policing of protests in the aftermath of these, have led growing numbers of citizens to question these assumptions. In this course, we will engage in a critical examination of “police power” in a wide range of contexts and analyze the nature of police violence.

Credits 4

Compass Attributes
Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars