This will be my last editorial for PPR and I am not prepared to say goodbye. In that there is no way to say goodbye when a child that you have birthed, nurtured and loved is taken away from you.
But perhaps instead of focusing on the unjust motivations of others that brought us to this point, I will concentrate on the merits that made this journal so valuable. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal is the only police journal with a worldwide reach that has successfully brought practitioners and researchers together.
It was on the eve of the Millennium that I submitted a proposal to Gordon and Breach, Publishers for a journal to be entitled, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. My goal has been, right from the beginning to combine the journal as an intellectual twin with the International Police Executive Symposium, IPES, www.ipes.info
The journal publishers, Gordon and Breach, published the first IPES Book, based on the papers presented at the Second Meeting of IPES, hosted by the School of Sociology of Law in Onati in Spain in 2000. That was the example of a concrete and constructive, collaboration and mutual affiliation between PPR and IPES which has continued until now (I attach the decades old history of collaboration between IPES and PPR in the IPES Account in this issue).
For more than two decades, right from the time I conceived, created and started PPR, I devoted myself heart and soul to this journal of my love. My own personal contribution has consisted of dedication, long hours, and efforts for tremendous cooperation that needed to be fostered between practitioners, researchers, universities as well as police agencies and institutions throughout the world. IPES acquired Special Consultative Status with the United Nations and PPR was celebrated in the assemblies of the nations of the world in the United Nations centers in Geneva, Vienna and New York, All these important activities and fascinating connections helped make this this journal, PPR, like no others in its field.
In this long, historical journey of intellectual curiosity and creative endeavors, I have had most sincere, generous, and selfless support and cooperation from numerous friends, colleagues, co-workers and well -wishers. They are numerous to mention individually in this short editorial. However, I must mention that Arvind Verma as the first Managing Editor, developed the review system, policies and procedures during his tenure as the ME. Peter Kratcoski has been the backbone of the journal as its North American Continental Editor and, the most creative link between PPR and IPES as the official Rapporteur of IPES producing brilliant Executive Summaries of each meeting of the IPES with Lucille, his most gracious wife, who has been his helper and the Co-Rapporteur.
The current Board of Editors has been serving in their present capacity at my request and they all deserve tremendous thanks and gratitude from me. I would like to mention that Tim Prenzler, an Editor, (I have never met personally), has been actively and most constructively involved with the journal right from the time I started PPR. Another Editor who I never met personally for the last 20 years but have worked closely is Lucia Dammert, South American Editor. In the same breath I must mention John Eterno who served as a very dynamic Managing Editor, Tonita Murray, an infallible Book Review Editor, Xiaochen Hu, current Managing Editor, Anna Bussu, Associate Managing Editor, and, Practitioner Liaison Editor Richard Heslop, Both personally and the Editor, I considered it a privilege to work closely with Clifford Shearing, Gary Cordner, Otwin Marenin, Bruce Baker, and Etannibi Alemika Some Editors like Diana Peterson, Garth den Heyer, Michael Birzer, Benoit Dupont, Yakov Gillinskiy, Curt Griffiths, Miranda Lai, Carlos Vilalta, Mercio P.Basilio, and Rune Glomseth have never failed to respond to call for help.
Serving as EIC of PPR for the last twenty years has been amongst the greatest honors of my life. It will never be the same without me and I will never be the same without it. But for both of us, our work continues. I am looking forward to the emergence of a global moral voice of the Criminologists, Criminal Justicians, Police Scholars and Practitioners as well as the relevant societies and associations all over the world for helping IPES and PPR unite again as they have been twins for the last 20 years.
Edited at the Office of the International Police Executive Symposium, IPES, WWW.IPES.INFO
