authoritarian relation between police and citizens to the extent that police
officers cannot, by default, compel people to recognize their authority nor
demand respect. Two other explanations are more specific and are related
to the line of work of the interviewed police officers and the process of
criminalizing cannabis.
The first explanation is related to the type of police work in question.
The discussed monitoring of coffee shops resides under administrative law
enforcement and not under penal law.^7 The situation, in which administra-
tive law enforcement is applied is less emotional, because it has a routine
character, which is predictable for all parties involved, in contrast to penal
law enforcement. And because of the regular character of the controls, the
different actors involved know each other and have been able to create a
modus operandi which is acceptable for all parties. These conditions are
quite different from police officers who for instance patrol the streets and
arrest young rowdy drunks in the centre of the city. The role of the rule
enforcer as a moral entrepreneur is then related to a specific type of police
work they are involved in.
A final explanation is related to the process of criminalization of canna-
bisin recent years. The effect of this process is that the position of police
officers in relation to cannabis is strong anyhow. They do not have to
defend themselves because cannabis has been labelled in a negative way
by politicians and policymakers. Another effect of the criminalization of
cannabis is that coffee shop owners want to present themselves as
respectable retailers in order to fight the label of being related to criminality.
Part of their impression management is to create and maintain friendly rela-
tions with the city, the policymakers and the police by co-operating with
them. Beside this symbolic motive, which is related to the criminalization
process which spoiled their identity, coffee shop owners have economic
motives to co-operate. Because they can be forced to close their business,
they will put all possible effort in complying with the police.
NOTES
- Cannabis refers to marihuana and hashish.
- Becker used the male gender, which was normal given that his work was pub-
lished in the early 1960s, when not that many women were part of the police force. - Becker refers to William A. Westley who studied the police and is seen as a
pioneer in police studies(1953). - This text is an adapted version of a publication written for the CIROC
website.
MoralEntrepreneurship Revisited 155