In spite of long‐term declines in the violent victimization of U.S. police officers, the danger of police work continues to structure police socialization, culture, and behavior. Existing research, though attentive to police behavior and deviance that negatively affects the public, analytically ignores how the danger of policing engenders officer behavior that harms police themselves. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews in three U.S. police departments, this article describes how police are informally and formally socialized into the danger imperative—a cultural frame that emphasizes violence and the need for officer safety—and its effect on officer behavior. As a result of perception mediated through the danger imperative, officers engage in policy‐compliant and policy‐deviant behaviors to protect themselves from violence. Unfortunately, policy‐deviant behaviors such as unauthorized highspeed driving and not wearing a seatbelt, though justified in the name of safety, lead to catastrophic car accidents that injure and kill both police and members of the public. This article concludes with discussion of how seemingly mundane policy deviant behaviors are a reflection of assumptions within police culture that undergird police practices that damage public wellbeing and perpetuate boarder inequalities in U.S. policing.

中文翻译：

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美国警务与危险势在必行

尽管长期以来美国警察遭受的暴力侵害有所减少，但警察工作的危险仍在继续构成警察的社交，文化和行为。现有研究尽管关注对公众产生负面影响的警察行为和偏差，但从分析上却忽略了维持治安的危险如何导致官员行为损害警察自身。本文利用美国三个警察部门的人种学观察和访谈，描述了警察如何非正式地和正式地社交化为当务之急-一种强调暴力和对警员安全的需求的文化框架-及其对警员行为的影响。由于迫在眉睫的危险感引起了知觉，官员们采取了符合政策和违反政策的行为，以保护自己免受暴力侵害。不幸的是，政策违规行为，例如未经授权的高速驾驶和不系安全带，尽管以安全为名，但会导致灾难性的车祸，伤害并杀死警察和公众。本文最后讨论了看似平凡的政策越轨行为如何反映了警察文化中的一种假设，这些假设助长了破坏公共福利，使美国警务人员的寄宿生不平等长期存在的警察行为。