THE POLICE FORCE AND COERCION

This article places the definition of the role of the police force, pu t forward by the American sociologist Egon Bittner, under critical exa mination. The role is defined as ''a mechanism used to distribute non- negotiable coercive force with intuitive understanding of the requirem ents in a given situation''. Firstly, it is shown that this definition , under the influence of ethnomethodology, has gained status as a para digm in police sociology. Then, it is pointed out that Bittner defines the police force in terms of its capacity to use force rather than in terms of its actual resorting to coercive measures. The urgent nature of the situations to which the police is required to react according to this theory is then discussed, along with the characteristics of po lice intervention. Finally, the article criticizes Bittner's proposals and points out that they are for the most part normative, and therefo re, cannot be validated empirically, too restrictive to take into acco unt the majority of police actions and lastly incorrect on a number of points, such as police monopoly as regards physical strength, its obl igation to deal in certain ways, and in its relation to law.