Barry Friedman, Unwarranted: Policing without permission
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865817729468 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Review
Barry Friedman, Unwarranted: Policing without permission. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, 2017;
327 pp. ISBN 978-0-374-28045-1 $28 USD (hbk)
Reviewed by: Robert Costello, State University of New York Nassau Community College, New York,
USA
Barry Friedman, the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law and Director of the Policing
Project at the New York University School of Law, delivers a powerful treatise on 21st
century American policing with Unwarranted: Policing without permission. The book is
written in an accessible style. Friedman explains all books are born out of specific times
and places—and this particular one grew from a series of events: from 9/11 to Edward
Snowden’s revelations in 2013 about US government surveillance to the shooting of
unarmed black adolescent Michael Brown by police in Missouri a year later. These
seemingly disparate events came to symbolize American policing for Friedman with
his book providing a detailed diagnosis—identifying illnesses and prescribing cures.
Friedman is a gifted writer who captures his readers’ imaginations as he utilizes
personalized stories of real cases that serve as the foundation to each chapter. From
the specifics of these particular examples, Friedman branches into his generalized ana-
lysis of policing using 12 chapters over three sections.
Friedman uses the introduction to outline the problems with policing. Whether it is
the vast surveillance network of citizens by federal authorities or the street-level enforce-
ment by a local police department, Friedman posits that policing in America is shrouded
in secrecy that surrounds no other function of government. Moreover, the little infor-
mation law enforcement must provide by law paints a very disturbing picture. One
startling example involves searches of people and cars. Despite the Fourth
Amendment’s guarantee that ‘‘the right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be
violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or
things to be seized,’’ Friedman highlights that 8 million searches of only people and cars
(not counting homes or offices) are conducted annually (p. 7). In a six-month period in
Los Angeles, 16,228 drivers were asked by local police for consent to search their trunks
with all but three saying yes (p. 8). Other examples include the use of deadly force (in
2015 police killed 1000 citizens with 10% being unarmed) (p. 8), the expanded use of
SWAT raids (potentially 50,000 to 80,000 per year) (p. 9), roadside digital anal and
vaginal exams on the thinnest of pre-texts (p. 11). Another revelation pertains to the
surveillance apparatus of our federal government that has resulted in agencies like the
Drug Enforcement Administration accessing records for every cell call made through
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2018, Vol. 51(1) 157–159
!The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865817729468
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