Book Review: The Prohibition Era and Policing: A Legacy of Misregulation

In The Prohibition Era and Policing: A Legacy of Misregulation, Professor Wes Oliver of Duquesne Law School gives us a delightfully written tour through the Prohibition-era roots of our current system of police regulation. He poses this question: How did the criminal justice system come to focus on regulation of search and seizure procedure rather than guilt and innocence or serious police misconduct, such as physical abuse and unwarranted shootings? The answer, according to Oliver, lies not in the orderly development of legal doctrine or even in the civil rights movement, but in public and judicial reaction against that misguided experiment in outlawing the sale of alcohol — Prohibition.