Much media and academic representations of police work focuses on action, and moments of excitement, drama, and danger. In this article, we consider, instead, those long periods of relative inactivity that characterize routine operational policing, which we refer to as times of “nothing” (consciously using quote marks since we argue that these quiet periods are actually opportunities in which valuable work is done). We identify three types of “nothing”: nothing that is inevitable and necessary; nothing as a creative space; and nothing as the absence of demand. We argue that we need to understand these and their part in policing practice. Moreover, recognizing the importance of “nothing” in police work serves as a corrective to politicized representations of policing and can help derail aggressive, hypermasculinized policing tropes.

警察工作的许多媒体和学术代表都集中在行动以及激动，戏剧和危险的时刻。相反，在本文中，我们考虑了长时间的相对闲置状态，这些时间段是常规运行警务的特征，我们将其称为“无事”时期（有意识地使用引号，因为我们认为这些安静的时期实际上是有价值的工作的机会）已经完成了）。我们确定了三种“虚无”：无可避免和必要的虚无。没有什么是创造空间；没有什么比没有需求。我们认为，我们需要了解这些及其在警务实践中的作用。此外，认识到“无”在警察工作中的重要性可以纠正警务的政治化表现，并有助于破坏激进的，过度男性化的警务思想。