POLICE POWERS AND CITIZENS’ RIGHTS: DISCRETIONARY DECISION-MAKING IN POLICE DETENTION

Police detention is the place where suspects are taken whilst their case is investigated and a case disposal decision is reached. It is also a largely hidden, but vital, part of police work and an under-explored aspect of police studies. It examines variations in the relationship between police powers and citizens’ rights inside police detention in cities in four jurisdictions (in Australia, England, Ireland, and the US), exploring, in particular, the relative influence of discretion, the law, and other rule structures on police practices, as well as seeking to explain why these variations arise and what they reveal about state-citizen relations in neoliberal democracies. This book draws on data collected in a multi-method study in five cities in Australia, England, Ireland, and the US. This entailed 480 hours of observation, as well as 71 semi-structured interviews with police officers and detainees.