ABSTRACT
This chapter looks briefly at the early police ethnographies and how this impressive assemblage of work reframed the way academia understood police and policing. The chapter identifies and tracks the ‘gap’ between early policing ethnographers and the resurgence of such work in the last two decades. It considers the importance of ethnography and why it matters. The chapter notes the topical, disciplinary, and geographical expansion of ethnography studies in the past two decades and considers the rejuvenation of this method in police studies.
