An account is called for that will specify the moral basis for ordering interpersonal and public relations between the police and the community consistent, of course, with democratic principles. Such an account is offered in this paper. The argument developed here contends that police professional conduct should be grounded in a sense of the virtues, i.e., those traits of character and dispositions that will serve stated purposes in the police occupational role; in a sense of justice as equality, or the quest for the impartial application of humane principles, rules and laws to all citizens; and a sense of retribution as the operative rationale for the justification of punishment. (Author abstract modified)