Shoot to kill: Police accountability, firearms and fatal force
ISBN: 9781847423160
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Bristol University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Sociology;

The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell underground station in 2005 raised acute issues about operational practice, legitimacy, accountability and policy making regarding police use of fatal force. It dramatically exposed a policy, referred to popularly as 'shoot to kill', which came not from Parliament but from the non-statutory ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers). This vital and timely book unravels these often misunderstood matters with a fresh look at firearms practice and policy in a traditionally 'unarmed' police service. It is essential reading for all those interested in the state's role in defining coercion and in policing a democracy.

Maurice Punch has worked at universities in the UK, the US and the Netherlands - where he lives - and his research expertise is on policing and corporate crime. He has written several books including Zero tolerance policing (The Policy Press, 2006) and Police corruption (Willan, 2009) and published in many journals. He is now an independent researcher and consultant. He is Visiting Professor at the Mannheim Centre of Criminology, London School of Economics and Political Science, and also in the School of Law, King's College London.

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