Data were derived from the questionnaire responses of 519 of 771 Illinois police administrators (67.3 percent). The results indicate that cynicism among chiefs gradually declines with experience in office. In addition, chiefs with more education and those administering larger police agencies were found to experience less cynicism. However, we also found that there is little variance in police chief cynicism scores and that the mean cynicism score of chiefs is modest. Thus, the conclusion that police chiefs are not a cynical lot seems warranted. (Publisher abstract)