The fluidity of 'police culture': Encountering the contextual complexity of policing street-level drug use

In this article, we critically reflect on the use of the term 'police culture' in the literature on policing, using examples drawn from ethnographic research in Durban, South Africa, to question its analytical utility. We argue that the term often serves as a vehicle to express a number of normative presuppositions that serve to homogenize and oversimplify the complexity of day-to-day policing. Using examples of the street-level policing of illegal substances, we further argue that it does not capture the myriad of influences and pressures that may create the structural field in which the experiences of police officers are defined, and which serve to shape their understandings of themselves and others. Indeed, it may be that rather than providing a means of understanding policing, the term may serve to create artificial representations of policing, while masking potentially useful strategies that originate from the police themselves.