These views differ because they are launched from different loci and sociological traditions. They may be resolved by paying more attention to the coherence between cultural and organizational, and occupational and administrative imperatives. It is argued that the pivotal place of both authoritative coercion and knowledge in police work ought not to obscure that these are instruments and they are used not in law enforcement, order maintenance, or crime prevention, but in brokering access to troublesome individuals and problem populations. Police officers are concerned with leveraging access to or block avenues of troublesome individuals or groups to maintain a variety of authorities. They do so by using the expedient of the rule of law, order maintenance and peacekeeping, and the special instruments of law, force, and information. Keeping and maintaining open windows to troublesome people unifies both police organization and culture. Recent organizational initiatives including the war on drugs, community policing, and police militarization simplify the mobilization of police resources against problem populations. These initiatives can be understood as part of the ongoing effort to update police resources to leverage access. Policing as the leveraging of access bridges divisions between police-as-coercive-authorities versus police-as-knowledge workers. Police penetrate problem populations and maintain boundaries for the interests of political authority. Police authority is a melange of self-government and state authority. Access brokering must continue to be a two-way street. It is hoped that a reconfigured professionalism in policing will revitalize the leveraging of access in the interests of the disenfranchised. 105 references