The interconnectedness of communities, organisations, governing bodies, policy and individuals in the field of disaster studies has never been accurately examined or comprehensively modelled. This kind of study is vital for planning policy and emergency responses and assessing individual and community vulnerability, resilience and sustainability as well as mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts; it therefore deserves attention. Disasters and Social Resilience fills this gap by introducing to the field of disaster studies a fresh methodology and a model for examining and measuring impacts and responses to disasters. Urie Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory, which is used to look at communities holistically, is outlined and illustrated through a series of chapters, guiding the reader from the theory's underpinnings through research illustrations and applications focused on each level of Bronfenbrenner's ecosystems, culminating in an integration chapter. The final chapter provides policy recommendations for local and national government bodies and emergency providers to help individuals and communities prepare and withstand the effects of a range of disasters. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of disaster and emergency management, disaster readiness and risk reduction (DRR), and to scholars and students of more general climate change and sustainability studies.

Every modern democracy in our increasingly complex world must confront a fundamental problem: how should politicians manage police, ensuring that they act in the public interest while avoiding the temptation to utilize them in a partisan manner? Drawing on first-hand experiences from six democracies, the authors describe how frequently disagreements arise between politicians and police commanders, what issues are involved, and how they are resolved. Governing the Police is organized into three parts: the intellectual and governmental context of democratic governance; the experience of chief officers in that relationship; and the reflections on lessons learned. Instead of describing practices within each individual country, it compares them across countries, developing generalizations about practices, explanations for differences, and assessments of success in managing the police/political relationship. Focusing mainly on the daily, informal interactions between politicians and police as they balance their respective duties, this book compares the experiences and opinions of chief police officers in Australia, Britain, Canada, India, New Zealand, and the United States. By examining the experiences of important officials, the authors explain how the balance between accountability and independence can be managed and what challenges leaders face. The authors conclude by posing well-informed recommendations for improving police governance.

This book of original essays presents controversial topics, then encourages the readers to consider what they think ought to be done. The selections identify several of the existing issues in policing about which something needs to be done; then, they present various viewpoints on possible solutions. This is done against the backdrop of an era of significant change in worldwide security, post-9/11, that has caused major changes in the manner in which the U.S. conducts its political, social and economic affairs.

She has to be OK, I pleaded silently to myself. She has to be. 'We've alerted the RNLI and they're sending a lifeboat out.' 'The RNLI?' I said, surprised. 'They do that?' Saved from the Waves is a heart-warming collection of first-hand accounts from RNLI volunteers of the myriad dangers they face during each mission to save beloved pets, wildlife and livestock. This remarkable book shines a light on the bravery of the volunteers, and the necessity of these rescues - not only to save animals at risk of drowning, but to prevent people putting themselves in danger when trying to save a cherished furry friend. Each mission requires courage, determination and an unrelenting commitment to helping those in danger. Each day brings a new challenge for the extraordinary volunteer crews who are the lifeblood of the RNLI.

The East German Ministry of State Security, popularly known as the Stasi, was one of the largest and most intrusive secret police systems in world history. So extensive was the system of surveillance and control that in any given year throughout the 1970s and 1980s, about one in fifty of the 13 million East German adults were working for the Stasi either as an officer or as an informer. Drawing on original sources from the Stasi archives and the recollections of contemporary witnesses, The Stasi: Myth and Reality reveals the intricacies of the relationship between the Stasi enforcers, its agents and its targets/victims, and demonstrates how far the Stasi octopus extended its tentacles into people's lives and all spheres of society. The origins and developments of this vast system of repression are examined, as well as the motivation of the informers and the ways in which they penetrated the niches of East German society. The final chapters assess the ministry's failure to help overcome the GDR's inherent structural defects and demonstrate how the Stasi's bureaucratic procedures contributed to the implosion of the Communist system at the end of the 1980's.

Every modern democracy in our increasingly complex world must confront a fundamental problem: how should politicians manage police, ensuring that they act in the public interest while avoiding the temptation to utilize them in a partisan manner? Drawing on first-hand experiences from six democracies, the authors describe how frequently disagreements arise between politicians and police commanders, what issues are involved, and how they are resolved. Governing the Police is organized into three parts: the intellectual and governmental context of democratic governance; the experience of chief officers in that relationship; and the reflections on lessons learned. Instead of describing practices within each individual country, it compares them across countries, developing generalizations about practices, explanations for differences, and assessments of success in managing the police/political relationship. Focusing mainly on the daily, informal interactions between politicians and police as they balance their respective duties, this book compares the experiences and opinions of chief police officers in Australia, Britain, Canada, India, New Zealand, and the United States. By examining the experiences of important officials, the authors explain how the balance between accountability and independence can be managed and what challenges leaders face. The authors conclude by posing well-informed recommendations for improving police governance.

Read the Introduction.

Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Anthony Baez, Patrick Dorismond. New York City has been rocked in recent years by the fate of these four men at the hands of the police. But police brutality in New York City is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that refers not only to the hyperviolent response of white male police officers as in these cases, but to an entire set of practices that target homeless people, vendors, and sexual minorities.

The complexity of the problem requires a commensurate response, which Zero Tolerance fulfills with a range of scholarship and activism. Offering perspectives from law and society, women's studies, urban and cultural studies, labor history, and the visual arts, the essays assembled here complement, and provide a counterpoint, to the work of police scholars on this subject.

Framed as both a response and a challenge to official claims that intensified law enforcement has produced New York City's declining crime rates, Zero Tolerance instead posits a definition of police brutality more encompassing than the use of excessive physical force. Further, it develops the connections between the most visible and familiar forms of police brutality that have sparked a new era of grassroots community activism, and the day-to-day violence that accompanies the city's campaign to police the "quality of life."

Contributors include: Heather Barr, Paul G. Chevigny, Derrick Bell, Tanya Erzen, Dayo F. Gore, Amy S. Green, Paul Hoffman, Andrew Hsiao, Tamara Jones, Joo-Hyun Kang, Andrea McArdle, Bradley McCallum, Andrew Ross, Eric Tang, Jacqueline Tarry, Sasha Torres, and Jennifer R. Wynn.

The aim of this book is to examine the qualities of leadership and decision-making in the police service. Based on groundbreaking research using unique, advanced methods for examining policing in complex critical incident environments, the book focuses principally on a series of police debriefs following live major critical incidents. It captures the views of the Senior Investigating Officers (SIOs) who worked on these cases and draws upon the very rich set of experiences that they have had in dealing with complex, stressful and demanding enquiries. The book provides an introduction to new methods for exploring leadership and decision-making in critical incidents. It will be an essential resource for developers of police training in leadership and decision-making, senior police officers involved in critical incident management, organisational psychologists who work within policing, and for students whose area of study covers policing, decision-making or criminal investigation.

Police culture has been widely criticized as a source of resistance to change and reform, and is often misunderstood. This book seeks to capture the heart of police culture-including its tragedies and celebrations-and to understand its powerful themes of morality, solidarity, and common sense, by systematically integrating a broad literature on police culture into middle-range theory, and developing original perspectives about many aspects of police work.

In June 2011, the city of Minot, North Dakota sustained the greatest flood in its history. Rather than buckling under the immense weight of the flood on a personal and community level, government, civic groups, and citizens began to immediately assess and address the event's impacts. Why did the disaster in Minot lead to government and community resilience, whereas during Hurricane Katrina, the non-resilience of the government and community of New Orleans resulted in widespread devastation? This book seeks to answer that question by examining how local government institutions affect pre- and post-disaster community and business resilience. Utilizing both survey methods and interviews, Atkinson analyzes the disasters that occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, Palm Beach County, Florida, and Minot, North Dakota. He argues that institutional culture within local government impacts not only the immediate outcomes experienced during response, but the long-term prognosis of recovery for a community outside the walls of city hall. Understanding tendencies within a community that lead to increased vulnerability of both individuals and businesses can lead to shifts in governmental/community priorities, and potentially to improved resilience in the face of hazard events. Relevant to scholars of public administration, disaster researchers, and government officials, this book contributes to a growing literature on community and business resilience. It explores not just the devastation of natural disasters, but profiles governmental impacts that led to responsive and able processes in the face of disaster.

Many racial minority communities claim profiling occurs frequently in their neighborhoods. Police authorities, for the most part, deny that they engage in racially biased police tactics. A handful of books have been published on the topic, but they tend to offer only anecdotal reports offering little reliable insight. Few use a qualitative methodological lens to provide the context of how minority citizens experience racial profiling. Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because I'm ---! places minority citizens who believe they have been racially profiled by police authorities at the center of the data. Using primary empirical studies and extensive, in-depth interviews, the book draws on nearly two years of field research into how minorities experience racial profiling by police authorities. The author interviewed more than 100 racial and ethnic minority citizens. Citing 87 of these cases, the book examines each individual case and employs a rigorous qualitative phenomenological method to develop dominant themes and determine their associated meaning. Through an exploration of these themes, we can learn: What racial profiling is, its historical context, and how formal legal codes and public policy generally define it The best methods of data collection and the advantages of collecting racial profiling data How certain challenges can prevent data collection from properly identifying racial profiling or bias-based policing practices Data analysis and methods of determining the validity of the data The impact of pretextual stops and the effect of Whren v. United States A compelling account of how minority citizens experience racial profiling and how they ascribe and give meaning to these experiences, the book provides a candid discussion of what the findings of the research mean for the police, racial minority citizens, and future racial profiling research. Michael L. Birzer was recently interviewed on public radio about his book, Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because I'm ---!

Based on five years of ethnography, archival research, census data analysis, and interviews, Police, Power, and the Production of Racial Boundaries reveals how the LAPD, city prosecutors, and business owners struggled to control who should be considered "dangerous" and how they should be policed in Los Angeles. Sociologist Ana Muniz shows how these influential groups used policies and everyday procedures to criminalize behaviors commonly associated with blacks and Latinos and to promote an exceedingly aggressive form of policing. Muniz illuminates the degree to which the definitions of "gangs" and "deviants" are politically constructed labels born of public policy and court decisions, offering an innovative look at the process of criminalization and underscoring the ways in which a politically powerful coalition can define deviant behavior. As she does so, Muniz also highlights the various grassroots challenges to such policies and the efforts to call attention to their racist effects. Muniz describes the fight over two very different methods of policing: community policing (in which the police and the community work together) and the "broken windows" or "zero tolerance" approach (which aggressively polices minor infractions - such as loitering - to deter more serious crime). Police, Power, and the Production of Racial Boundaries also explores the history of the area to explain how Cadillac-Corning became viewed by outsiders as a "violent neighborhood" and how the city's first gang injunction - a restraining order aimed at alleged gang members - solidified this negative image. As a result, Muniz shows, Cadillac-Corning and other sections became a test site for repressive practices that eventually spread to the rest of the city.

This study examines the relationship between the Milwaukee Police Department and the Latino community in the second half of the twentieth century.

This book examines the role of the private sector in emergency management and how that role is changing through private sector intersections with government, government agencies, and the public sectors in all phases of emergency management. It particularly focuses on the areas in which government regulations and guidelines promote or encourage private sector involvement, and looks at best practices for public-private partnerships as well as some of the common pitfalls of the contracting model. The private sector now plays a tremendous role in the creation of policies related to emergency management and their implementation at the federal, state, and local levels. The Private Sector's Role in Disasters: Leveraging the Private Sector in Emergency Management explores some of the challenges of implementing policies in the current contracting model. It also compares emergency management to other government services that have been privatized. Case studies of recent disasters and examples of the privatization of some emergency management functions are presented to illustrate how to better plan for private sector involvement in future disasters. Given the sometimes dysfunctional relationships that have emerged from public-private partnerships in disaster situations, it is important to analyze and improve principles and practices to work toward more effective partnership. This book provides thoughtful guidelines, recommendations, and best-practice approaches to public-private development, implementation, and collaboration throughout the disaster cycle. It gives focused directions for cultivating public-private working relationships to make emergency responses quicker and assistance more effective.

The approach that should be used by law enforcement officers in order to safely and effectively enter a room is a point of contention among many police trainers. Based on five experiments conducted over a two-year period, Evaluating Police Tactics demonstrates that the conventional wisdom is not optimal. Using the scientific method to systematically assess current room entry philosophies and techniques employed by police, Evaluating Police Tactics offers suggestions for examining the current philosophies and determining how patrol officers can enter scenes of ongoing violence, find the shooter, and stop the killing as safely and effectively as possible. About the Real-World Criminology Series More than just textbooks, the short books in the Real-World Criminology series are designed to be of interest to particular fields within criminology. They can be policy primers, spurring innovations in policing and corrections, theoretical works dealing with policy implications, or program evaluations incorporating theoretical foundations. Each book covers something that is happening -or should be happening-in the world of criminal justice.

This important new book, the first of its kind in the fire safety field, discusses the economic problems faced by decision-makers in the areas of fire safety and fire precautions. The author considers the theoretical aspects of cost-benefit analysis and other relevant economic problems with practical applications to fire protection systems. Clear examples are included to illustrate these techniques in action. The work covers: * the performance and effectiveness of passive fire protection measures such as structural fire resistance and means of escape facilities, and active systems such as sprinklers and detectors * the importance of educating for better understanding and implementation of fire prevention through publicity campaigns and fire brigade operations * cost-benefit analysis of fire protection measures and their combinations, taking into account trade-offs between these measures. The book is essential reading for consultants and academics in construction management, economics and fire safety, as well as for insurance and risk management professionals.

Less than half of the public in the U.S. have taken the three steps to prepare for emergencies that are recommended by FEMA and the Red Cross: having a 3-day emergency kit, a family communication plan, and knowing where to get information during an emergency. Although emergency managers attempt to train the public, often they are only able to distribute brochures and make public notifications. For a variety of reasons, the public frequently ignores this guidance, leaving people more vulnerable during emergencies. This book applies the process of social marketing, which has been used widely in public health and other disciplines, to the lack of public preparedness. Written for emergency managers in government and non-profit agencies, students, and volunteers, the book provides enough background and resources to enable the user to carry out an effective emergency preparedness campaign in their community and maintain it over time. Unlike preparing one message for everyone, social marketing involves working with smaller communities to identify what and how people want to learn, training them, and then maintaining that relationship to insure their preparedness. Because most emergency management agencies lack resources to take on such an initiative, the book provides readers with low cost methods to begin a social marketing program.

Less than half of the public in the U.S. have taken the three steps to prepare for emergencies that are recommended by FEMA and the Red Cross: having a 3-day emergency kit, a family communication plan, and knowing where to get information during an emergency. Although emergency managers attempt to train the public, often they are only able to distribute brochures and make public notifications. For a variety of reasons, the public frequently ignores this guidance, leaving people more vulnerable during emergencies. This book applies the process of social marketing, which has been used widely in public health and other disciplines, to the lack of public preparedness. Written for emergency managers in government and non-profit agencies, students, and volunteers, the book provides enough background and resources to enable the user to carry out an effective emergency preparedness campaign in their community and maintain it over time. Unlike preparing one message for everyone, social marketing involves working with smaller communities to identify what and how people want to learn, training them, and then maintaining that relationship to insure their preparedness. Because most emergency management agencies lack resources to take on such an initiative, the book provides readers with low cost methods to begin a social marketing program.

* Offers a comprehensive discussion of how different agencies handle the challenges faced by police today. * Gives rare voice to the experiences, views, and perspectives of those tasked with doing policing across a variety of cultures. * Offers a global perspective not available in most works on policing.

Bringing together a range of leading social scientists and criminologists, this volume explores a number of key themes raised by the work of Robert Reiner. Arguably the leading policing scholar of his generation, Reiner's work over some 40 years has ranged broadly in this field, taking in the study of police history, culture, organisation, elites and relationships with the media. Always carefully situated within an analysis of the changing socio-political circumstances of policing and crime control, Robert Reiner's scholarship has been path-breaking in its impact. The 13 original essays in this volume are testament to Reiner's influence. Although reflecting the primarily British bent within his work, the essays also draw on contributors from Australia, Europe, South Africa and the United States to explore some of the leading debates of the moment. These include, but are not limited to, the impact of neo-liberalism on crime control and the challenges for modern social democracy; police culture, equality and political economy; new media and the future of policing; youth, policing and democracy, and the challenges and possibilities posed by globalisation in the fields of policing and security.

"The chapters in this book reveal that police education, training, and practices are now closely tied to collaboration between police, academics, professional practitioners, and community agencies, and such collaboration is described and evaluated." -Dilip K. Das, PhD, Founding President, International Police Executive Symposium (IPES) and founding editor-in-chief, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, from the series editor's preface "The chapters in this book present genuinely comparative, theoretically informed, and experience-based collaborative programs to appraise and analyze the specific practical, theoretical, and psychological challenges of working together and the creative means to overcome those challenges." -Otwin Marenin, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Washington State University, from the foreword A collection of chapters authored by internationally known police leaders, academics, researchers, and professionals, Collaborative Policing focuses on the fact that the worlds of policing practice and research are moving closer. Using in-depth interviews with police and professionals who work with justice agencies as well as case studies demonstrating fruitful police-academic collaboration, it explores methods and programs for improving the quality of services provided by the police. Many police executives, in conjunction with citizens and political leaders, now define the missions of their agencies on the basis of research findings, practical experience, and projections of what policing will involve in the future. This book shows you not only that collaboration can occur, but that it can also enhance police service, which in turn improves the quality of life for the communities they serve. Its descriptions of police-academic cooperation provide you with valuable guidelines for designing programs to develop a better police force and a stronger community.

This newly updated encyclopedia of fire engines from all over the world charts their history from Roman times to the super-advanced firefighting machines that we rely on today. An A-Z of fire engine manufacturers depicts each type, from General Motors in the USA and Metz in Germany, to Hino in Japan. There is documentation of early fires, including the Great Fire of London, and a section on modern-day fire brigades provides facts about training, uniforms and special rescue techniques. With 700 photographs, many depicting fire engines in action, this fabulous book is an essential history, identifier and source book of fire engines and firefighting.

The year 1856 saw the first compulsory Police Act in England (and Wales). Over the next thirty years a class society came to be policed by a largely working-class police. This book, first published in 1984, traces the process by which men made themselves into policemen, translating ideas about work and servitude, about local government and local community, servitude and the ideologies of law and central government, into sets of personal beliefs. By tracing the evolution of a policed society through the agency of local police forces, the book illustrates the ways in which a society, at many levels and from many perspectives, understood itself to operate, and the ways in which ownership, servitude, obligation, and the reciprocality of social relations manifested themselves in different communities. This title will be of interest to students of criminology and history.

Web Programming for Business: PHP Object-Oriented Programming with Oracle focuses on fundamental PHP coding, giving students practical, enduring skills to solve data and technical problems in business.

Using Oracle as the backend database, the book is version-neutral, teaching students code that will still work even with changes to PHP and Oracle. The code is clean, clearly explained and solutions-oriented, allowing students to understand how technologies such as XML, RSS or AJAX can be leveraged in business applications. The book is fully illustrated with examples, and includes chapters on:

• Database functionality
• Security programming
• Transformation programming to move data

Powerpoint slides, applied exam questions, and the raw code for all examples are available on a companion website. This book offers an innovative approach that allows anyone with basic SQL and HTML skills to learn PHP object-oriented programming.

The twentieth century was a time of rapid social change in Ireland: from colonial rule to independence, civil war and later the Troubles; from poverty to globalisation and the Celtic Tiger; and from the rise to the fall of the Catholic Church. Policing in Ireland has been shaped by all of these changes. This book critically evaluates the creation of the new police force, an Garda Siochana, in the 1920s and analyses how this institution was influenced by and responded to these substantial changes. Beginning with an overview of policing in pre-independence Ireland, this book chronologically charts the history of policing in Ireland. It presents data from oral history interviews with retired gardai who served between the 1950s and 1990s, giving unique insight into the experience of policing Ireland, the first study of its kind in Ireland. Particular attention is paid to the difficulties of transition, the early encounters with the IRA, the policing of the Blueshirts, the world wars, gangs in Dublin and the growth of drugs and crime. Particularly noteworthy is the analysis of policing the Troubles and the immense difficulties that generated. This book is essential reading for those interested in policing or Irish history, but is equally important for those concerned with the legacy of colonialism and transition.