Previous research on police-citizen encounters has primarily focused on three sets of variables presumed to explain officer behavior: individual, situational, and organizational explanations. One of the problems with such studies is that they do not acknowledge organizational and occupational constraints that shape officer decisionmaking. The decisions made by an officer when dealing with citizens in particular circumstances are not based on a neutral reading of the classical sociological variables of age, sex, race, and class or the more relevant variables such as suspect's demeanor or the legal seriousness of the offense. Instead, the decisions are filtered through an occupational lens, which refocuses the officer's perspective on immediately relevant and practical concerns. The officer's principal concern in any citizen encounter is the avoidance of negative sanctions, either from the organization, in the form of disciplinary proceedings or the loss of perks; or from the public, in terms of challenges to authority which entail physical or psychological harm. 50 references.