Introduction to Police Work

Policing is in a profound period of change, the result of recent government reform, a renewed drive for professionalism as well as the need to adapt to a rapidly changing society. This book provides a highly readable and up to date introduction to the work of the police, exploring what this currently involved and the directions it may be going in. It is designed for student police officers starting their probation and training, students studying public or uniformed service courses in colleges, students taking undergraduate courses in policing and criminal justice, and anybody else who wants to know about policing today.

The book describes all the key elements of policing work. The first two parts look at how the police functions as an organization, with chapters devoted to important new areas of crime reduction partnerships and forensic support in investigation and enforcement. The third section covers key aspects of practical police work, with coverage of such challenging areas as anti-social behaviour and terrorism. The book contains a wide range of practical tasks and activities, and links are made throughout to the new Initial Police Learning and Development Programme and National Occupational Standards in Policing.

1 Introduction 2 Important issues in cancer screening 3 Does screening work in Sweden? 4 Stonewalling the Cochrane report on screening 5 Troubling results in the Lancet 6 Harms dismissed by the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group 7 The Lancet publishes the harms of screening 8 Delayed media storm in the United States after our 2001 reviews 9 The Danish National Board of Health circles the wagons 11 Scientific debates in the United States 12 Publication of entire Cochrane review obstructed for 5 years 13 Editorial misconduct in the European Journal of Cancer 14 Tabár’s ‘beyond reason’ studies 15 Other observational studies of breast cancer mortality 16 Overdiagnosis and overtreatment 17 Ad hominem attacks: a measure of desperation? 18 US recommendations for women aged 40–49 years 19 What have women been told? 20 Extraordinary exaggerations 21 Tabár threatens the BMJ with litigation 22 Falsehoods and perceived censorship in Sweden 23 Celebrating 20 years of breast screening in the United Kingdom 24 Can screening work? 25 Where is screening at today? 26 Where next?

Colin Rogers is a Lecturer in Criminology in the Department of Health, Sport and Science at the University of Glamorgan. Prior to this, he was a Police Inspector with South Wales Police for 30 years. His areas of expertise include community safety partnerships, situational crime prevention, problem oriented partnerships and also police governance and accountability.

Rhobert Lewis is Associate Dean of the Department of Health, Sport and Science at the University of Glamorgan. His particular areas of expertise are police training, and forensic and police sciences.