Police Funding, Dark Money, and the Greedy Institution

"The private funding of police has been a peripheral issue in criminological scholarship. Lippert and Walby's fine book shows this to be a mistake. Using a rich dataset born of meticulous investigation, they shine much needed critical light on the dark money animating police operations across North America. It is a highly illuminating and often unsettling read."

Adam White, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Sheffield

"In Police Funding, Dark Money, and the Greedy Institution, Lippert and Walby continue their exceptional efforts to push policing scholarship into uncharted research terrain. With all eyes drawn to the public financing of police organizations through the 'defunding' debate, the surreptitious and contaminating expansion of private sponsorship of public policing has been worryingly neglected. Built upon robust investigation that breaches the blue wall and illuminates the dark money flowing into police coffers, this book spotlights the worrying implications of this disreputable public-private exchange within policing. Empirically-rich; methodologically-robust; conceptually-nuanced: this book will be of immense benefit to policing scholars, and indeed many more besides."

Conor O'Reilly, Professor in Transnational Crime and Security, University of Leeds

"This meticulous study reveals the pervasive influences of private funding in North American policing. Lippert and Walby are to be commended for uncovering many complex and potentially troubling networks of financial exchange that raise important questions about transparency, neutrality, accountability, and private influence in contemporary public administration."

Ian Warren, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Deakin University

"Lippert and Walby have written a path-breaking book that exposes and makes sense of a deeply consequential trend: dark private money feeding the mass-policing beast. They balance rigorous research findings with incisive theoretical concepts making for an eye-opening and disquieting analysis."

Pete Kraska, Professor of Police and Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University