The incorporation of powerful myths into the structure and activities of police departments enables them to attain legitimacy; with legitimacy comes stability and protection from outside interference by sovereign actors present in the enveloping institutional environment. Legitimacy problems arising from conflicting institutional myths, however, may precipitate full-blown organizational crises. Such crises are resolved ceremonially through a ritual that combines public degradation of the police department and the removal and replacement of the disgraced police chief by a new chief with a legitimating mandate. Using several examples, the authors suggest ways in which police organizations conform to the institutional environment. In general, the institutional perspective contends that values, beliefs, and norms in the institutional environment of policing become part of the organizational structure. 101 footnotes