Managing Trouble Along a Continuum of Accountability: On Police Practices for Dealing with Less-Than-Competent Subjects.

This article examines how police officers respond to interactional troubles during encounters with civilians, particularly focusing on how officers interpret and manage civilians' compliance or noncompliance through conversation analysis. It identifies a continuum of accountability whereby officers treat civilians as either purposefully uncooperative—leading to more punitive responses—or as lacking interactional competence, often associated with mental disorder, resulting in more instructive and accommodating approaches. The study analyzes video-recorded police encounters to show that officers' moment-by-moment conversational practices shape the moral ascriptions and authority escalations within interactions, highlighting the fluid and situational nature of judgments about agency and responsibility. This research contributes to understanding the complex decision-making processes frontline officers engage in when balancing punitive and therapeutic roles in managing social problems.