The Birth of the State Police

Willard M. Oliver, PhD, is a professor in the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State. His areas of expertise include policing (ex. Police stress, small-town and rural policing, community policing, Homeland Security & policing, etc.), public policy of crime & criminal justice, and the history of criminal justice. He is the author of several other books pertaining to the history of criminal justice (as well as other areas of criminal justice and policing), including The Birth of the FBI: Teddy Roosevelt, the Secret Service, and the Fight over America's Premier Law Enforcement Agency (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), August Vollmer: The Father of American Policing (2017), A History of Crime and Criminal Justice in America 3rd ed. (2017), Killing Congress (Lexington, 2014), Introduction to Homeland Security (2014), Crime, History, and Hollywood (2013), and Killing the President (2010). Oliver is a retired major in the U.S. Army Reserves and a former police officer. He resides in Huntsville, Texas with his family.