Bowker Biography:
Police Foundation

In the past 30 years, policing has changed more fundamentally and dramatically than at any time in its history.

At the beginning of the 1960s, many police departments were closed to the outside: their personnel were drawn largely from particular groups. Little public debate took place over police practices or procedures. The courts frequently deferred to the police department in complaints about or lawsuits over police misconduct. Police departments were frequently well-funded by municipal governments. Police departments engaged in little experimentation and virtually no innovation.

During the same period in the 1960s, other forces were at work. The nation experienced the agony of riots in most of its large cities and many of its smaller ones. Women began to assert their rights and to bring to public attention the prevalence of domestic violence. Stories of corruption in police departments surfaced in the media. The conduct of police toward civil rights and antiwar demonstrators was displayed on television for all the nation–and the world–to witness.

Determined to address the challenges of change in an ever-changing world, the Police Foundation did much of the research that led to a questioning of the traditional model of professional law enforcement and toward a new view of policing–one emphasizing a community orientation–that is widely embraced today. Seminal foundation research on issues such as police patrol practices, women in policing, use of force by police, and the police response to domestic violence has transformed policing in profound ways.

 

 

Web: www.policefoundation.org
Email: pfinfo@policefoundation.org
Address: Police Foundation
1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036 USA
Phone: (202) 833-1460
Fax: (202) 659-9149