Policing is a complex, multifaceted social phenomenon: it is at once a rarefied social institution (i.e., public law enforcement); a billion dollar industry (e.g., the private policing & private security industries); a social sorting mechanism (e.g., racial profiling and the school-to-prison pipeline); and a cultural practice embedded in everyday life (e.g., surveillance). This course examines two core questions: Who are the police? And, what is policing? In doing so, it examines policing - broadly defined - from sociological and criminological perspectives.