Rise Of The Political Cop. Nearly 15 yrs ago now, when Michael Brown still had almost exactly a year left in his life, Radley Balko released a seminal history of the rise of the militarized police force in the United States he titled Rise Of The Warrior Cop. In it, he traced the history of policing in the American tradition all the way from its origins as the ‘Shire Reef’ in feudal England to its then most modern incarnations. (He has also released an updated version of this book in the last couple of years.)
Here, Schrader does for police unions what Balko did for police militarization, though Shrader’s historical focus is more explicitly limited to the last century or so with only brief mentions of prior periods – including the aforementioned ‘Shire Reef’.
Detailed and decently documented, with its bibliography clocking in at a reasonable 22%, this is yet another book that anyone concerned with the amount of power police wield in modern America will want to read. Schrader does a great job of showing how we got to this point via both intentional machinations… and some sheer dumb luck for those pushing for more unionization of police. Yet despite being a Johns Hopkins professor, this doesn’t really read as an academic tome. Dense, yes, with a *lot* of facts and names and dates, but also decently readable even for those less academically inclined.
Overall a truly solid look at a facet of policing in America that some talk about yet virtually no one understands the history of, this will absolutely fill in that gap for any who care to read it. It also happens to be reasonably balanced, so while there may be annoyances here or there depending on one’s own politics, there isn’t really anything here that seemingly anyone will be looking for the highest possible window to use for defenestration purposes.
Very much recommended.
This review of Blue Power by Stuart Schrader was originally written on April 28, 2026.