ABSTRACT
As an occupational practice, policing is now largely institutionalized. Its ends, however, are variously construed. Most accounts focus on some dimension of crime control or crimefighting though the actual scope of police work tends to be broader, encompassing order maintenance or, as I argue here, social peacekeeping. To the extent that police are agents of governmental activity, how broadly or narrowly their work is construed is not independent of broader accounts of legitimate political authority. I defend the social peacekeeping account against some narrowing arguments, without disputing the central roles of public safety and crime control.
