Dr. John P. Kenney began his career in criminal justice and law enforcement career as a patrol officer for the Berkeley Police Department.  A recognized leader in the improvement of policing, Dr. John Kenney has been a director at the California Department of Justice; the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission; a management consultant (which included the Denver City Council retaining him in 1957 when a Denver Police Department scandal received national publicity for numerous police officers taking contracts to burglarize businesses); and, he worked extensively with the Agency for International Development identifying police consultants to work overseas, and personally conducted an international conference on democratic policing in Thailand.

Dr. John Kenney was a founder of the International Association of Police Professors which became the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and was a President of the American Society of Criminology. His work as a criminal justice educator included the graduate schools for police administration at the University of Southern California and California State University at Long Beach.  He is the author of Police Operations: Policies and Procedures: Four Hundred Field Situations with Solutions; Principles of Investigation and Study Guide to Accompany Principles of Investigation (2 Books); The Police Executive Handbook; and, Police Work with Juveniles and the Administration of Juvenile Justice.

Police Work with Juveniles and the Administration of Juvenile Justice is now in its eight edition and has been significantly updated by criminal justice scholars, according to the book description, the “Eighth Edition is thoroughly rewritten and revised and is completely reset in type. Police Work with Juveniles and the Administration of Juvenile Justice has made a unique contribution to the juvenile justice literature for four decades. It is a scholarly treatise on the subject emphasizing a philosophical approach. However, it addresses the principal issues and concepts with a practical orientation, making it an invaluable resource for both students and practitioners. The book has from its inception in 1954 highlighted the police role and functions with interrelationships between community agencies, the courts and correctional agencies emphasized. Each component of the juvenile justice system is treated in a meaningful manner. This edition focuses upon the issues of changes taking place in the juvenile justice system. The substantial increases in juveniles responsible for crimes of violence has continued the transformation of the juvenile court toward a criminal court. The past two decades has reversed the rehabilitation movement toward that of punishment for juvenile offenders. The legislatures have responded with tougher laws. Current research into chronic juvenile recidivism suggests that a multiple agency approach including family support coordinated by probation may be the only realistic way to "save" juvenile offenders from lives of crime. New in this edition is fuller treatment of the role and functions of the juvenile court judge and a more detailed historical perspective of the juvenile court. Each chapter has been preceded by "Chapter Objectives" and "Key Concepts" to provide the reader a quick overview of chapter content.”

According to the book description of Principles of Investigation, “Covering topics from a conceptual viewpoint, this text brings the ethical and legal obligations of investigation into perspective. It uses tabulated lists and checklists along with Features (examples) to cover the techniques of investigation.”