ABSTRACT
Commonsensically, the police are servants of and representatives for the respectable sectors of society, and as such are involved in a timeless and intensely moral engagement with the forces of chaos and anarchy. However, sociological literature convincingly demonstrates of the police as of other institutions, that manifest functions and practice routinely becomes replaced by latent functions and practice. Police work involves tensions and contradictions which can be regarded as universal. The overwhelming majority of ‘rule bending’ cartoons essentially are allusions to informal practices engaged in, in the pursuit of self serving rather than ‘honourable’ objectives. The cartoons are also used in reference to internal and external debates in terms of policing organization, style and strategy. The cartoons are performing a role in providing strong indications of what competent police work looks like.
