This volume is a collection of interviews with policing leaders that explores their understanding of policing developments and current challenges in their own countries and internationally, and examines how they evaluate or interpret these developments. The book is based on the premise that police officials have a wealth of experience that can make significant contributions to our understanding of the prospects and problems of policing today.

In this book, ten police leaders from the continents of North America, Asia, Australasia, Africa, and Europe offer their combined experiences in policing. The interviews, conducted by experienced policing academics, capture how these officers personally, as well as through their organizations, have confronted many waves of change – political, social, and institutional. Interviews examine each professional's assessment of their career path; changes experienced during their career; their personal policing philosophy; problems and successes experienced in leadership; their views on the contribution of theory to practice; their experience of transnational relations; their understanding of nature of democratic policing; and their assessment of how policing will change in the future.

As police and policing across the world face a turning point, this book offers ideas and best practices from the front lines on ways to respond with vigor, creativity, and sensitivity to the challenges of repositioning police in the twenty-first century.