ABSTRACT
The saying that “people receive the kind of policing they deserve” ignores the role power plays in the kind, quality, and distribution of police service. The police are social control agents, an institution of government that imposes the force of law on the public. Power, therefore, resides with those who make the laws and those who have the ability to influence the course of law. By extension, then, power is vested in those who determine police structures, set the police agenda, and choose the tactics police employ. This power arrangement can be as formal as political leaders passing new laws that direct police
attention or as informal as influential people and interest groups bringing pressure on political leaders to change police programs and tactics.
