The authors use institutional theory as a framework for analyzing the police in society. The "institutional perspective" on the police chief refers to an understanding of police and police leadership in terms of their accommodations to the social contexts or environments in which they are embedded. Together with their histories, these contexts shape the particular features of individual agencies and their leadership, including even the mundane aspects of their operations. From the institutional perspective, the authors review long-term tendencies toward the rationalist modernization of American police agencies and the ongoing "professionalization," unionization, and bureaucratization of police work today, a process that is resulting in entirely new law enforcement models. The book highlights the internal and external conflicts and power struggles that converted police organizations into tension- filled arenas. At stake in these conflicts is the fundamental definition of police work. New policing paradigms have emerged that would move it away from rule- based, law enforcement models toward service alternatives that emphasize the situational imperatives and discretionary essence of police work. 168 references and a subject index