Introduction: Understanding the Management of Police Services

This chapter sets the scene for the first of a three volume edited series on the leadership and management perspectives in the three main blue light emergency services (Police, Ambulance and the Fire & Rescue Services). It provides the rationale behind this volume and its relevance to a wide audience of students, academics, practitioners, professionals including the management practitioners in police forces. The chapter first sets the changing context of policing drawing the evidence from the UK. The chapter then details the aims of this book and provides a brief summary of each of the chapters and the plan of this volume. One of the highlights of the volume is the assembly of experts from academia, serving and former police officers & staff and police practitioners both in the UK and abroad, giving an international perspective on the future of policing. The chapter also makes reference to the challenge of covering all the possible management themes in a single volume but the editors remain confident that the chosen topics will provide a rounded understanding and critical insights into the leadership and management of police services.