ABSTRACT
Futurists are fond of saying that “the future is already here-it’s just not evenly distributed.”* To a degree, that is true for policing-many elements that represent promising trends for meeting the challenges of the future have already been developed. Some are in current use in select departments. Others were tried and evaluated under experimental conditions, but not widely adopted. A handful has been enshrined as “best practices,” earning them limited adoption and further development. A few of the more promising innovations have made their debut as gimmicks, ways of plugging gaps in one or another area, without recognizing the full potential that they embodied. Citizens Police Academies are one innovation with considerably more potential than just preparing people for Neighborhood Watch participation (Bonello and Schafer 2002). Some practices crept in as grudging responses to ‘scal restrictions, without fair consideration of their potential beyond the minimum accommodation necessary for the budget. Others have produced negative consequences. And some innovations and ideas are debuting with as-yet-unful‘lled potential for consequences both good and bad.
