Police in a liberal society are expected to fight crime, act as social workers, maintain order, and define morality. Because they stand between the public, crime, and disorder, police are given extra resources and powers. Yet these extra functions are ill-defined. Police involve themselves in too many areas of public life and are capable of upsetting the delicate constitutional balance between individual and state that must exist in a liberal society. Modern policing reflects the increasing authoritarianism of liberal society. To rectify the over-reaching powers of police, the formal constitutional status of the police must be emphasized, thus protecting the independence of the police and clarifying police accountability, and their neutrality must be strengthened. A liberal society should depend upon the self-policing capacities of its citizens and call upon the constabulary only when self-policing fails. 101 footnotes.