Analysis with the Q method revealed two distinctly different images of the police among the sample: either impartial guardians of order or bullies in uniform who exercise power for malign motives. Both white and Asian groups contained adolescents who viewed the police as either guardians or bullies, but the black sample almost exclusively regarded police as bullies. Due most likely to the limited size of the sample required by the method of Q factor analysis, statistically significant differences between racial groups were not realized. On the basis of this analysis, the central issue around which perceptions of the police are organized among this sample of adolescent males appears to be police power and how it is used. 2 tables and 38 references