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Reviewed by:
  • Law enforcement, communication and community ed. by Howard Giles
  • Gregory M. Matoesian
Law enforcement, communication and community. Ed. by Howard Giles. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2002. Pp. 265. ISBN 1588112551. $65.95.

This ten-chapter volume attempts to develop a ‘communication science’ of police-citizen interactions and to demonstrate the applied relevance of the field of communication for law enforcement. The introductory chapter correctly notes that most police work involves not the extraordinary activity seen [End Page 887] in the popular media, but mundane communication among police, citizens, and criminal-justice personnel. Consequently, the most important task for law enforcement is to communicate effectively with citizens.

The remaining nine chapters by various authors cover an array of topics relating to police and communication. One chapter by Ann-Christin Cederborg deals with interviews of sexually abused children, concluding that officers should be trained in the use of legally effective interviewing techniques, such as using less coercive forms to increase convictions. Another chapter by Ed Maguire and William Wells focuses on community policing, the newest historical trend in policing style, and how it rests on the premise that crime control functions best through effective communication between police and citizens. Additional chapters on crisis/hostage negotiations (Randall Gage Rogan and Mitchell R. Hammer), cop shows (Jan J. M. van de Bulck), emotion talk (Keith Tuffin), information technologies (Andrew J. Flanagin), policing hate (Edward Dunbar), stalking (Brian H. Spitzberg), and domestic crimes (Mary Anne Fitzpatrick) round out the collection.

Although the book suggests a tantalizing range of topics purporting to study police-citizen interaction, none of the chapters actually describe or analyze the concrete details of social interaction, language use, or communicative practice. Instead, the authors employ theoretical, conceptual, and prescriptive models for efficient police-citizen interactions, and most of these deal with old frameworks, such as horizontal/vertical communication and the like. In fact, I found only five short data extracts in the whole volume, none of which made any attempt at even rudimentary data analysis. The fact that actual communicative practices are not discussed is disappointing. The blurb on the back of the book states that Law enforcement, communication and community ‘is unique in studying the ways in which police and citizens communicate’ but, in reality, it studies only theoretical and conceptual models that communication scientists use to discuss police-citizen communication. I came away without any indication of what law-enforcement communication actually looks like.

Gregory M. Matoesian
University of Illinois at Chicago
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