The analysis considers policing both in Canada and in other countries. The discussion includes a review of existing research and an analysis of data collected through 155 police officers and administrative personnel in Canada, observations of their activities, and analysis of other documents. The review of existing research on policing concludes that other researchers have almost entirely overlooked the risk communication systems of policing, although it indicates that policing operates in terms of the rules, formats, and technologies of risk communication systems. This analysis argues that police mobilization is a matter not only of intervention in the lives of individual citizens but also a response to institutional demands for knowledge of risk. The book's second section presents a theoretical consideration of the risk society context in which policing takes place. It notes that risk society operates in a negative logic that focuses on fear and the social distribution of bad factors rather than on progress and the social distribution of good factors. The third section provides an ethnographic analysis of how police participate in risk communication systems designed for territorial surveillance and security. The fourth section provides an empirical analysis of how the police participate in risk communication systems that relate to financial instruments, careers, and identities. The final section examines how the police perceive and handle risk communications internally. Figures, tables, index, and approximately 350 references