THE POLICING MACHINE

How the NYPD evades genuine public accountability.

As Duke sociology professor Cheng shows, the largest police department in America creates the impression of democratically led reform, while securely guarding its own autonomy. This book, writes the author, “describes how police cultivate political capital through a strategic politics of distribution— the discretionary distribution of public resources and regulatory leniency toward constituents, alongside coercive force against alternative voices.” Cheng carefully and convincingly develops his argument, informed by extensive interactions with community members and backed up with copious citations of prominent scholarship. He explains how the NYPD undermines opposition to its policies by, among other tactics, manipulating community councils so that strict control is exerted over how complaints are interpreted and addressed, as well as coopting the authority of local churches to promote the appearance of widespread public approval. Cogent examples throughout the book demonstrate the failure of anything close to democratic power over policing itself. The core problem, Cheng demonstrates, is not a lack of ties between the police and the communities they serve, but rather the coercive force of the ties that already exist. The author includes insightful commentary on the various professional, practical, and personal reasons why the police are motivated to resist surrendering more of their independence. The timeliness of his investigation is underscored by the representative quality of the NYPD and the current urgency of efforts being made across the nation to make police more responsive to public concerns. Though more consideration of the views of police officers themselves would have enriched readers’ understanding of the complex problems—for that, turn to Edwin Raymond’s An Inconvenient Cop—Cheng makes a strong case that we must “rethink the promise of public input for achieving democratic governance over police departments.”

A hard-hitting exposé of the organizational structures and political maneuvering that thwart police reform.