The book "Handbook of Police Administration," written by Jim Ruiz and Don Hummer in 2007, goes into great depth over problematic issues such as officers accepting gratuities, undercover work, and the time criteria required for promotional consideration. It also goes on to contrast the administrative issues in Australia, to the protocol of the United States. This book is intended for anyone interested in going into police work, or maybe for those who just want to learn more about the law, and the people who enforce it. Going into reading this book, I was expecting, purely from the name of the book, that it was going to be just a list of rules and regulations with no actual meaning to be, as I am not a policeman. Although, shortly into the book, I found out that I was quite wrong. This book kept me interested the whole time, giving me information that I will find very useful if I choose to go into law enforcement work in my future. It tells what sort of issues, and problems police officers face. One of the most interesting parts to me is the great detail on undercover work. The only thing that I was hopping, but not expecting to be in the book that disappointed me a little bit, is that they did not go into E.O.D (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) at all. That is one aspect that I am interested in with police work. After reading this book I knew more about everyday police protocol, and I found out a lot about undercover work, because I knew nothing before hand. Not only does this book address the conversation of police work and how it runs, it also touches on the conversation of law in general, and how it affects society. Jim Ruiz, and Don Hummer’s work enlightens the reader to many things an average person would not know.
“Handbook of Police Administration,” consists of 26 chapters, and 452 pages, all crammed full of useful, interesting, and important information. This book passes on current research, and the technology that can assist modern policemen in acting out their daily duties. Some of the topics covered in the book include; citizen surveys, legal aspects of overseeing the public, physical fitness, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and gender roles in police protocol. Although a lot of this information might be considered to be crammed into to little of a space, for some less experienced readers, this book can be overwhelming, and quite challenging to read. I have also noticed some of the information can be seen as rather bias. It seems more that it could be seen as an opinion shared by the authors, and not true fact. Although, with this said, these opinions are based on intelligent knowledge, and may be used as credible sources of information.
This book is a great fit for anyone interested in police work, or how the police administration is ran. The authors go into great detail on how police organization runs society. They uphold the law, enforce it, and help in every way. If you are looking to learn more about the world of policemen, their thought process, and learn amazing facts about the technology they include into their routines, this book is for you. It will enlighten your knowledge beyond what you see and hear, you will know the facts, and the hidden aspects of how the police administration works. These nuggets of knowledge can be useful for living in a modern day society where policemen and women play such an important role shaping modern culture. Even if this book does not cover the topic of police work you wish to know, it will give you some basic, and more in depth knowledge of the police administration in general.
