With just the right dose of academic pragmatism, Police Misconduct in America assesses the history of police excesses from 1900 to the present. At the dawn of the profession, police officers initially were hired based on physical strength, not personal skills. They did not understand the laws they were enforcing or how laws should be enforced. This extensive survey examines the context and types of police misconduct since the 1900s. Written by Dean J. Champion, Police Misconduct in America covers police history back to Mesopotamia, outlines controversies, provides a broad chronology of significant eras in police history and a timeline of specific events, and offers biographical sketches of key personalities from J. Edgar Hoover to Alice Stebbens Wells, the first American policewoman. It also includes are summaries of key Supreme Court cases, an extensive list of organizations concerned about police misconduct, government documents and agency publications, and other references.