For nearly fifteen years, Criminal Procedure: Principles, Policies and Perspectives (and their softcover versions, Criminal Procedure: Investigating Crime and Criminal Procedure: Prosecuting Crime), written by Joshua Dressler and George C. Thomas III, have sought to inspire students to analyze and critique constitutional and non-constitutional criminal procedure doctrine. The book features careful case selection and editing that includes dissenting and concurring opinions when useful in understanding the law. The Notes and Questions, as well as the Teacher's Manual, are uniformly thoughtful and sometimes even humorous. The Fifth Edition covers the recent changes in constitutional law, including in the Fourth Amendment (e.g., "search" law; broader warrant exceptions; and the recent narrowing of the exclusionary rule); interrogation law (e.g., changes in Miranda v. Arizona and in the sixth amendment right to counsel that make it easier for police to interrogate suspects and defendants; pretrial identification of suspects; and the Confrontation Clause.
As in the past, the casebook includes in the trenches material that gives students an idea of what life is like inside the squad car, the interrogation room, and the courtroom.