Famous Police Leaders: And a Few That Are Infamous

This project provides a unique addition to policing literature by detailing the background and history of our most relevant and infamous police leaders. The book is directed toward courses in leadership and historical biographies related to policing in the United States. Readers will be informed about the backgrounds of each police leader and how the political and historical environments shaped their leadership. Moreover, the book will educate the reader on major shifts in American policing strategies and leadership theories along with research findings that helped shape these historical shifts.

Brandon Kooi, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Criminal Justice program at Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois. He received his Ph.D. degree from the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University in 2004. Before his academic career, Dr. Kooi was a private security consultant/executive, criminal investigator, law clerk, and youth crisis interventionist. He assisted in training police administrators through the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing and the Wisconsin-based Problem-Oriented Leadership Institute for Chief Executives (POLICE). Dr. Kooi’s consulting work included the Aurora, Illinois Police Department’s anti-gang initiative (Finding Typhoid Mary) and Sheboygan, Wisconsin Police Department’s community policing (Neighbors Against Drugs) unit. Both initiatives were finalists for the Herman Goldstein Award at the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing international conferences. Dr. Kooi also presented his research at the Stockholm Criminology Symposium in 2018.