City Police

Book excerpt: This landmark 1973 study of city policemen portrays in detail work "on the street,"the way police regard their work, the way they deal day-by-day with suspects and criminals, with colleague and superiors, and with the general public. Jonathan Rubinstein spent over a year with the Philadelphia police force, riding second man in patrol cars on all shifts, and from this experience he describes every aspects of a policeman's working life: his conception of the place he polices; his sense of territory; the extent of his knowledge of the people he polices; his technique for surveillance of his area; his use of the tools of the trade to control people; his complicated relationships with his coworkers and his sergeant, who dominates his working life. And, of course, he deals extensively with the eternal problems of corruption and brutality. Written with great insight and without pro- or anti-police bias, City Police is rich in illustrative incidents and serves as an excellent model for future studies of police work.