Urgent Times

Tracey Meares and Dan Kahan have performed a great public service....[They have] opened up a major debate on a promising idea about how to keep streets safe without throwing out essential legal safeguards. If you live where I live, you know that's a life-and-death issue. --The Reverend Eugene F. Rivers, 3d, from the Foreword

Through a searching examination of the constitutional and moral issues of community policing, Tracey Meares and Dan Kahan challenge us to reconsider our ideas about how to fight urban crime and about the role of rights in a democracy. Activists and legal scholars-including Alan Dershowitz and Jean Bethke Elshtain-offer spirited responses.

"The New Democracy Forum series is a civic treasure....A truly good idea, carried out with intelligence and panache." --Robert Pinsky

The New Democracy Forum is a series of short paperback originals exploring creative solutions to our most urgent national concerns.Tracey L. Meares is professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School. Dan M. Kahan is professor of law at Yale Law School.