NCJ Number
175590
Date Published
1997
Length
201 pages
Annotation
Observations of the police patrol activities of the Wilshire Division of the Los Angeles Police Department formed the basis of an analysis of the factors involved in how police define and control territory as a means of exercising social control.
Abstract
Information was collected by means of fieldwork conducted between August 1993 and March 1994. Most of the field work consisted of accompanying patrol officers during their shifts. The 35 ride-alongs averaged 6 hours in length; half included roll call. The author also accompanied senior lead officers for an average of 4 hours on 20 occasions, which typically included patrolling areas of most concern to them. Further information was gathered through observations of dispatchers, accompanying foot patrol officers, riding in an air support helicopter, observing training days. Results revealed that territorial action is a basic component of everyday police behavior. In addition, such action is structured by six normative orders that provide sets of rules and practices centered on primary values: (1) law, (2) bureaucratic regulations, (3) adventure/machismo, (4) police safety, (5) competence, and (6) morality. The relative impacts of these normative orders varies among officers and situations; however, police officers enact some or all of these normative orders in constructing and controlling space. These findings have implications for the understanding of territoriality, the government, and the police. Chapter reference notes and index