American Criminal Procedures is the perfect text for criminal justice students, practitioners, and law programs that offer undergraduate and graduate level instruction. It introduces issues that are common to police and the citizens they confront on a day-to-day basis, as well as the legal actions officers are allowed to take. Using an easy-to-read format, this book provides the reader with a clear presentation of past and present decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as lower federal courts.

More specifically, American Criminal Procedures exposes two areas of the enforcement of constitutional rights and judge-made rules to police practices: it determines the kind of impact the rulings have on the behaviors of law enforcement officers and the quality of justice they afford, and it reveals how those rights have evolved or eroded since the courts began to entertain defendants’ claims. A major portion of the text is devoted to examining the case law that addresses the amendments that are at issue. In the final analysis, the authors provide recommendations and remedies that can be used to enhance the quality of policing in America.

Most criminal justice texts only devote a few chapters to the day-to-day procedures that law enforcement officers employ; this is a sad reality since policing is the chief component, as well as the most visible agency, in the justice system. Because of the thoroughness with which it covers criminal procedures, this book can stand on its own as a primary text.