From Warriors to Guardians: Recommitting American Police Culture to Democratic Ideals (2015)
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From the "Introduction" to From Warriors to Guardians: Recommitting American Police Culture to Democratic Ideals (2015):
Beginning in the 1960s, and more recently fueled by post 9-11 fear, American policing has slowly drifted away from Plato’s vision of guardians and Socrates’ view of guardian education as expressed in Plato’s Republic. This view of guardian education is humanistic. It takes shape through criminal justice education that is not only vocational but also stresses ethics, theory and the nature of virtue.2 As a profession, we have veered away from Sir Robert Peel’s ideal,
“the police are the people, and the people are the police,” toward a culture and mindset more like warriors at war with the people we are sworn to protect and serve.
