PUBPOL 495 (Policy Seminar) is for students currently enrolled in the Public Policy Undergraduate Program only, no exceptions. Enrollment is by permission only. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
The police play an important but contentious role in the United States today. Every day, thousands of Americans call the police to resolve crises they cannot resolve on their own, and many more look to the police to keep them safe from crime, violence, and other forms of danger. Thousands more are stopped, arrested, or subjected to physical force by a police officer; on a typical day, three of them are killed. Those incidents dramatically illustrate the profound authority that the police exercise in contemporary America. How should the scope and limits of that authority be defined? What organizational, legal, and political structures should govern it? This course explores these basic questions about American policing by exploring classic and contemporary readings from history, law, the social sciences, and related fields.
