The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing

Sierra-Arévalo (sociology, Univ. of Texas at Austin) immersed himself in three midsize American city police departments and found them saturated with a fear of violence. The paradox, he points out in his fascinating book, is that police officer deaths on duty has dropped. What explains this paradox? He attributes this to the way that officers are trained, socialized, and recruited. He further asserts that the origin of police departments and their military model, which has not adapted to changing social conditions, is a major factor. The book is based on more than 1000 hours of observation, 108 interviews, and four years of immersion in an eastern city, a southwestern one, and a town in the western part of the country. He points out that police officer deaths are amplified within departments and in the media. The result of this focus on danger means that police cannot reliably distinguish dangerous suspects from innocent ones in uncertain situations.