The use and abuse of police power in America: historical milestones and current controversies

Part I. Legal and societal limits to police power in early America (1600's-1800's) : Fourth Amendment ; Fifth Amendment ; Sixth Amendment ; Sir Robert Peel and principles of modern policing ; Bow Street runners ; Southern slave patrols ; Colonial night watches ; Pinkerton Detective Agency and private policing ; Law enforcement in the wild west ; International Association of Chiefs of Police ; Crime control versus due process

Part II. Technological advances and the rise of organized crime (1900-1950) : Charles Becker (1870-1915) ; Gangsters of the 1900's ; Secret Service ; Teddy Roosevelt's fight against police corruption ; ACLU ; J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), director of the FBI ; Wickersham Report on soaring crime during Prohibition ; Brown v. Mississippi ; National Firearms Act ; Police misconduct during the L.A. Zoot Suit Riots ; Uniform crime reports ; Wiretapping

Part III. Law enforcement in the era of political and social upheaval (1950-1975) : Miranda v. Arizona ; Mapp v. Ohio ; Terry v. Ohio

Kerner Commission Report on race riots and police response ; Chicago police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention ; Increase in violent crime rate and risk to law enforcement ; Control theory ; Knapp Commission ; Frank Serpico (1936- ) ; Summerdale scandal ; Church committee investigation of FBI surveillance ; Police authority to detain ; Corruption ; RICO Act

Part IV. A new mandate for exercising police power (1975-2000) : Wilson and Kelling's broken windows theory ; Fleeing felon legislation ; Rodney King beating and riots ; "Law and order" as a popular political slogan ; Will Bratton (1947- ), police commissioner ; Ruby Ridge and the Waco Siege ; Zero tolerance policy ; "Thin blue line": police as a guard against anarchy ; Impact of the war on drugs ; Christopher Commission ; Abner Louima case ; Amadou Diallo case

Part V. Intensive debate about the "American police state" (2000-present) : Deadly force ; Police accountability ; Police brutality ; Police mistreatment in cases of civil disobedience ; Timothy Thomas's death ; Militarization of public and campus police departments ; Civil asset forfeiture as source of department funding ; Deaths in the line of duty ; Sean Bell shooting ; PTSD and family issues among officers ; Trayvon Martin shooting ; Michael Brown shooting and the aftermath in Ferguson ; Eric Garner case in New York City and subsequent tensions ; Variations in law enforcement attitudes about gun control laws ; Understanding probable cause ; Boardwalk empire ; Dashcam videos ; Body cameras ;- Community policing today ; Ezell Ford shooting ; Tamir Rice shooting in Cleveland ; Freddie Gray case ; Walter Scott shooting ; Sandra Bland death in Texas ; Use of tasers ; Police ethics ; Racial profiling ; Recidivism ; Constitutional mandates ; Crime prevention techniques ; Perceptions of police today.