ABSTRACT
Coming to Grips with the Past Until fairly recently, police work could easily have been described as a bastion for politically conservative white males. Police sergeants supervised other white men, like themselves, who came primarily from the working class. The typical police officer was a high school graduate with some military experience who had worked in blue-collar or lower level, white-collar occupations before joining the police department. Most of these men were attracted to police work for its job security and masculine camaraderie. In many areas of the country, a succession of ethnic groups (such as the Irish, Italians, and Jews) controlled police departments and used them as stepping stones to higher socioeconomic status.
