Policing, Civil Rights and Social Change

This course covers policing in the United States as it intersects with constitutional rights and racial justice. Topics will include studying the history of police institutions, from slave patrols and night watches to big city police departments; the constitutional framework for policing powers; various theories and tactics of policing, such as broken windows policing; policing practices in the context of schools, drug enforcement and immigration enforcement; and the rise of social movements seeking to change police's role in society, such as the Black Lives Matter movement.