The Politicization of Police Stops in Europe

Jacques de Maillard is Professor of Political Science at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France, and of the Cesdip (Centre for sociological research on penal institutions), an interdisciplinary research center specialised on criminal justice issues. Kristof Verfaillie is Lecturer in Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. His current research focuses on the relationships between democracy, politics and crime control, focusing specifically on the effects of counterterrorism policies. Mike Rowe is a Lecturer in Public sector Management at the University of Liverpool, UK, and Vice Chair of the EU COST Action on Police Stops. His recent research has been a long-term ethnographic study of police discretion and has recently published Police Street Powers and Criminal Justice with Geoff Pearson. This book examines the timely issue of police stops as a public and political issue, focussing on the European states. Contrary to much other work it focuses on wider Europe and the social and political context in which the police practice of stopping citizens emerges, develops and can be curtailed. More specifically, the volume analyses public controversies about police stops, i.e. events in which conflicts emerge about how the performance of police stops is explained and justified. This book stems from an EU COST Action research network on Police Stops, which engages academics and practitioners from 29 countries. It appeals to those in law, criminology and policing studies with some potential for wider interest in cultural studies/history and public policy/politics, as well as to practitioners in police scrutiny, oversight and other professional bodies and in training organisations.