Policing America

Ken Peak's career as a practitioner and educator in law enforcement and criminal justice spans more than 35 years - including nearly eight years as a police chief executive and beat officer. He is currently a full professor and former chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada, Reno, where he was named teacher of the year by the university's honor society. He entered municipal policing in Kansas in 1970 and subsequently held positions as a nine-county criminal justice planner in Kansas; director of a four-state Technical Assistance Institute for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration; director of university police at Pittsburg State University in Kansas; acting director of public safety at the University of Nevada, Reno; and assistant professor of criminal justice at Wichita State University.



He has authored or coauthored twenty other textbooks, including Justice Administration: Police, Courts, and Corrections Management (5th ed.); Community Policing and Problem Solving: Strategies and Practices (5th ed., with Ronald W. Glensor); Police Supervision and Management: In an Era of Community Policing (2nd ed., with Ronald W. Glensor and Larry K. Gaines); Women in Law Enforcement Careers: A Guide for Preparing and Succeeding with V. Lord); and Policing Communities: Understanding Crime and Solving Problems (an anthology, with R. Glensor and M. Correia). He has also published two historical books- KansasTemperance: Much Adoabout Booze, 1870 - 1920 (with P. Peak) and Kansas Bootleggers (with Patrick G. O'Brien)-as well as more than fifty journal articles and book chapters.



He has served as chairman of the Police Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and as president of the Western and Pacific Association of Criminal Justice Educators. His teaching interests include policing, administration, victimology, and comparative justice systems. He received two gubernatorial appointments to statewide criminal justice committees while residing in Kansas and holds a doctorate from the University of Kansas.