Police community relations are assessed on four dimensions: police involvement in the community; police role in the community; community involvement in policing; and the location of powers with regard to policing. Overall, relationships appear most distant in France, the U.S.S.R. and the Netherlands and closest in China, Cuba, and Japan. There is less evidence of public influence over the police than in terms of the other three criteria used. Some marked differences were found in the key features among these societies. Japan, although similar to China and Cuba in many respects, shows slightly less evidence of police involvement in the community and differs significantly in the location of power. France rates poorly on all four criteria. The Dutch police show some degree of involvement in local communities, whereas the Soviet public have considerable involvement in policing. Hong Kong, similar to Japan, also shows high levels of police involvement in the community and fairly high levels of public involvement in policing. Differences can be attributed to cultural and traditional influences or to political ideology.