Within police studies, ‘police culture’ is often depicted according to a series of values (e.g. conservatism, solidarity, suspicion, etc.). This article argues in favour of an alternative conceptualization of police ‘culture’, which draws on concepts from the sociology of culture. Police culture is viewed as a resource, which actors deploy within particular institutional constraints. Drawing on 100 interviews and participant observation in a police department, the analysis examines how officers negotiate meaning in an unsettled occupational environment prompted by heightened levels of police oversight. Two culture indicators are examined: solidarity and mission. This article represents an explicit attempt to theorize police culture sociologically and invoke an adaptive framework for uncovering how actors use culture within a definable set of structuring conditions.