Police responsibilities in criminal law enforcement are conditional. Officers are not expected to act wherever and whenever any kind of crime has occurred. Instead, their mandate restricts them to dealing with those crimes whose clearance may require force. There is a group of crimes commonly assumed to have the potential of requiring force to deal with them: homicide, assault, armed robbery, and burglary. The absence of the assumption about the possible need for force identifies the alternative sphere of criminality (white-collar crime), with which the police have no business being involved. The outer boundaries of police responsibility involve events where something must be done immediately to prevent harm or damage. In such cases, the police officer is empowered and required to use force to prevent a feared outcome or to cause the necessary to happen. Because the police are involved with crimes, disorder, and service needs most often occurring among poor minorities, they are continually open to the charge of racism and discrimination against the poor, thus complicating police relations with the persons most frequently encountered by police. The establishment of an identity for the vocation of policing is made difficult by its uniqueness and the broad range of performance quality, policy, education, and training manifested in its ranks. What is needed is an organizational structure and discipline that can control the risk of abuse and enhance the effectiveness of service. Twelve footnotes are provided.