This paper reviews three cases illustrating how police roles are shaped by the interactions of variably powerful actors in ramified local networks. It focuses attention on the influence of the rank-and-file and police unions on the outcomes of these interactions, and on related tendencies to professionalize and bureaucratize the police; and it posits as a result of these interactions both a normative emphasis in police circles on law enforcement components of the police role and the preservation of police officer discretion in its performance.
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