Reconstructing eighty years of history, "Political Policing" examines the nature and consequences of U.S. police training in Brazil and other Latin American countries. With data from a wide range of primary sources, including previously classified U.S. and Brazilian government documents, Martha K. Huggins uncovers how U.S. strategies to gain political control through police assistance--in the name of hemispheric and national security--has spawned torture, murder, and death squads in Latin America.

After a historical review of policing in the United States and Europe over the past century,...