Every Day Police

Every Day, Police is a complex exploration of the gendered and sexuality-based aspects of law enforcement violence, and is the first book to focus entirely on police violence against women, girls, and transgender people of color.

While most people are aware that incarceration rates have skyrocketed, few consider how the pursuit and enforcement of ever stricter criminal penalties for nonviolent acts has dramatically accelerated the frequency and intensity of police interactions with women of color. What does this increased contact mean for those stopped but not arrested, or arrested but not convicted; for those impacted even if they never come in contact with the courts or prison system?

Each stop for a possible traffic violation or "quality of life" offense, every call for protection from an abuser, and every border search increases the likelihood that a woman, a girl, or a trans person will be brutalized at the hands of the cops: assaulted sexually, jobs lost, children taken, forced to register as sex offenders, and trauma repeatedly re-enacted; a vast net of policing that affects not only the safety of their bodies but also the security of their incomes, their community standing, and their very ability to keep their families together. The repercussions are devastating.

Veteran lawyer and activist Andrea J. Ritchie drills down through myriad police interactions around the country to examine the laws and attitudes that underpin this violence, offering concrete suggestions for policy changes and grassroots action to enable women and trans people of color to achieve a greater measure of safety for themselves and their communities.

Ritchie has written and spoken extensively on the issue of violence against women and LGBT people of color by law enforcement agents, and testified before the United Nations Committee Against Torture, United Nations Human Rights Committee and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in 2006.