'… this is a good book. González offers critical and useful insights into the so-called hard problem of police reform. … The book is not just about the demerits and problematic implications of authoritarian policing but also about how police reforms, as political processes, are either enacted or not. To have shown the path is, in my opinion, the principal achievement of the book. As police reform efforts and debates are, in my view, destined to continue in the region, González's book is by default destined to be a reference in these debates.' Carlos Vilalta, American Journal of Sociology
1. Police: authoritarian enclaves in democratic states; 2. Ordinary democratic politics and the challenge of police reform; Part I. Persistence: 3. Institutional persistence in São Paulo state: authoritarian policing by democratic demand; 4. The endurance of the 'damned police' in Buenos Aires province; 5. Policing in hard times: drug war, institutional decay, and the persistence of authoritarian coercion in Colombia; Part II. Reform: 6. 'New police', same as the old police: barriers to reform in São Paulo state; 7. The social and political drivers of reform in Buenos Aires province and Colombia; 8. Conclusion: inequality and the dissonance of policing and democracy.