The Use and Abuse of Police Power in America: Historical Milestones and Current Controversies. Edited by Gina Robertiello. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2017. 370 p. $71.20 (ISBN 978-1-4408-4372-3). E-book available (978-1-4408-4373-0), call for pricing.

This reference book is a timely encyclopedia that captures some of the most recent and critical events that involved law enforcement, as well as a number of historically significant milestones in the relationship between law enforcement and citizens in the United States. This book is a quick reference that is structured in a way to give researchers an easy-to-use timeline of events, technological advances, changes in the law, and debates and incidents with police that have infiltrated everyday life and the news.

This reference covers an expansive date and topic range, from the 1600s to the present, from colonial night watches to racial profiling. It is subdivided by broader topics (wiretapping, corruption, and body cameras, as examples), specific case studies (the Trayvon Martin shooting, Frank Serpico, and Teddy Roosevelt and the fight against police corruption), and important court proceedings (Brown v. Mississippi, Miranda v. Arizona).

A strength of this reference is its effort to objectively cover the number of recent incidents that involved police officers causing the death of minorities. Contributors try to offer unbiased accounts and offer little to no speculation on unverified elements of the interactions, but bibliographies for further reading are presented to offer researchers the opportunity to investigate these incidents on their own and draw their own conclusions based on their findings. It also benefits from being one of perhaps very few reference texts that examines the criminal justice system through the lens of policing in accessible entries that would provide useful starting points for researchers at a variety of reading levels.

I would recommend this reference to two- and four-year undergraduate institutions, especially those with criminal justice programs. The analysis of policing in America is unlikely to wane in the coming years, and this book will retain its relevance for years to come.—Amanda Babirad, Instructional Services Librarian, Morrisville State College, Morrisville, New York