Police Reform and Political Accountability: The Ties That Bind Policing in England and Wales and the United States of America (1607 - 2016)

Read in its entirety, Police Reform and Political Accountability. The Ties That Bind Policing in England and Wales and the United States of America tells an intriguing and multifaceted story of policing in two countries, whose history and experiences have converged, diverged, ebbed, and flowed over hundreds of years. As each generation takes its place at the helm of society; preceding generations are laboriously writing and rewriting history with the inevitable result that important events, people information and memories will be side-lined, minimised and lost. This book begins with the back story of an empire which emerged almost by accident without a grand design, but which once created, worked relentlessly to sustain and expand its sphere of influence and control. Charting the system of policing that emerged; this is quintessentially a story of Englishmen and women in England and the system of policing that emerged. This is also a story of the Englishmen and women who fled England to escape religious oppression, taking with them, the customs, and systems of law and order that they had known. On arrival in their new land, they found little solace as they sought to carve out new lives in the new world of Amerigo Vespucius. The ties that bound England and Wales and the United States of America were first and foremostly familial; in time, they became political, economic, social and despite the march of history and cultural divergence; the ties remain to this day and this book covers part of that story. As society has grown, needs change and as we have demanded more from our police services and the state, so too have they demanded more from each of us. The intention of this book is to assist the reader in understanding how the past portends for the future, and to compel us to think deeply about the ties of custom, politics, hope and fear that has informed the creation and transformation of our police services and which will continue to do so in the future.