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Perhaps the simplest way of explaining why we have the police—but one that still describes the breadth of the role—is to highlight the important tasks of law enforcement, order maintenance, and service. As discussed, law enforcement refers to tasks such as conducting investigations and making arrests. Order maintenance consists of activities that keep the public peace, which involves regulating citizens’ conduct without resorting to citations or arrests. Service activities include all other activities of the police besides order maintenance and law enforcement, such as assisting motorists whose cars have broken down, getting keys out of locked cars, and attending to other people in need.

order maintenance: Activities of the police that involve keeping the peace without resorting to citations or arrests.

service: Other duties performed by police, such as assisting stranded motorists and attending to other people in need.

law enforcement: Tasks performed by the police that involve conducting investigations and making arrests.

Exhibit 4.4 Every Second Counts: Responding to Drug Overdoses

Police patrol is staffed and organized so that officers can quickly respond to emergencies, everything from crimes in progress to traffic accidents. This ability to respond to situations where “something ought not to be happening, about which something ought to be done now!” leads to the police sharing some emergency responses with emergency medical personnel such as fire and rescue. Case in point: Opioid overdoses and naloxone. Opioids most often include heroin, prescription pain killers, and fentanyl and its variants. Opioid abuse and overdoses have reached epidemic proportions. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50; approximately 180 Americas die every day from opioid overdoses.³⁰ Opioids kill by depressing respiration to the point that the brain receives inadequate oxygen, a condition called hypoxia. Naloxone (or Narcan brand name) is a drug that, if delivered within minutes of overdose, can reverse the effects of opioids and restore normal breathing. It is typically delivered via a nasal spray. When administered in time, survival is likely.³¹ It is not a dangerous drug, although people who are revived by the drug may show extreme agitation. Required training to recognize overdoses and to administer the drug is not extensive. Most states provide legal authorization for police officers to carry and administer naloxone, and most states have police agencies that carry the antidote.³² The biggest challenge is usually the cost of equipping all patrol cars with the medication, as its cost is approximately $100 per dose. While police officers armed with naloxone can save lives by being in the right place at the right time, it must be understood that these measures do very little in addressing the deeper and more complex problem of opioid abuse in our society.

Naloxone is one way by which drug abuse affects the job of police officers. Drug use also creates significant law enforcement work for the police in terms of responding to and investigating crimes committed by drug users to support an addiction, enforcement of illegal drug sale crimes, and dealing with interpersonal conflicts that result from drug abuse.

Several observations can be made regarding this classification of activities and responsibilities. First, over time police departments have emphasized some responsibilities over others. For example, during the political era, service to politicians and order maintenance were the focus of the majority of police departments. In the reform era, law enforcement was the central objective. In the community problem-solving era, service to citizens and order maintenance are probably most strongly emphasized.

Second, the lines that differentiate service, law enforcement, and order maintenance are at times rather blurry. For example, when the police ask a citizen to turn down his or her music because the neighbors are complaining, it would best be considered order maintenance. When the police return and issue a citation for loud music, it would be law enforcement. Police patrol could be considered a service to the community, order maintenance, or perhaps even law enforcement.

Photo 4.6 The police sometimes find themselves in a difficult position: They are supposed to preserve the public peace, but at the same time, they are supposed to protect the right of people to protest.

Protest Against Racism and Hate in Chicago/Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Third, law enforcement and order maintenance may conflict. For example, citizens have the right to protest, and the police are supposed to protect that right, but the police are also supposed to preserve the public order. Sometimes the police make arrests of citizens who protest. This conflict underscores the difficult position the police sometimes find themselves in.

Fourth, some activities performed by the police, especially service activities, can be provided by other agencies. For example, citizens who lock themselves out of their cars can rely on locksmiths, not the police. Residents in some community neighborhoods rely on private security companies to provide or supplement patrol. Some departments contract with private companies to help investigate vehicle accidents.³³ The reasoning is that, by reducing work demands of the police, it allows the police to focus on other more essential responsibilities. Conversely, some departments voluntarily take on service responsibilities that are more in line with the mandate of other agencies; “scoop and run,” as described in the introduction to this chapter, is an example.

Finally, different police departments emphasize different aspects of the policing role. A police department is not a “one size fits all” entity. One community may have disparate expectations of their police compared to another community. For example, in his classic book, Varieties of Police Behavior,³⁴ James Q. Wilson identified three styles of policing reflected by police departments: the legalistic, watchman, and service-oriented styles. In departments that adhere to a legalistic style of policing, enforcement of the law is the top priority. Not surprisingly, officers in legalistic departments make a lot of arrests and issue a lot of citations. In departments that follow a watchman style of policing, order maintenance and controlling disorder are the top priority. Police departments that reflect the service-oriented style of policing believe citizen satisfaction is the top priority. The main goal is to serve the citizens of the community; arrests are made when necessary, but police action is mostly geared toward providing services and assistance to citizens.

legalistic style of policing: Policing style in which enforcing the law is the top priority.

watchman style of policing: Policing style that focuses on order maintenance.

service-oriented style of policing: Policing style that maintains citizen satisfaction is the top priority.

To illustrate the different styles of policing, consider a situation in which a police officer discovers juveniles who are in violation of a curfew ordinance. In the legalistic departments, the juveniles would most likely be issued citations. In the watchman-style departments, they would probably be brought to the police department and their parents called to pick them up. In the service-oriented departments, the juveniles would most likely be taken home to their parents, perhaps without legal consequences.

Just like police departments may have certain priorities and orientations, so may police officers.³⁵ It is not a stretch of the imagination to think that police officers bring their own ideas, preferences, styles, and belief systems to the job. These attitudes relate to officers’ personalities and their occupational outlooks or the way they view their role. The fact is that the role of the police varies based not only on the police department but also the officers who work within a department.