The concept of community in policing and other areas of social policy rests on a reaction against large institutions and remoteness, the view that people should come together to meet their common needs and address common problems, and the argument that public policy and practice should strengthen voluntary and informal structures rather than weaken or conflict with them. The main elements of community policing are the use of permanent beat officers, together with a shift in emphasis toward foot patrol; an emphasis on crime prevention rather than on arrest and apprehension; an emphasis on interagency cooperation; consultation combined with decentralization; and proactive rather than reactive policing. However, several basic problems need attention. Among these are the need for police to plan their work to emphasize consensus-building rather than the usual adversarial approach; the need to resolve the conflicting demands on police by different communities; and the need to effectively blend formal and informal social controls while ensuring that informal social controls are not used oppressively. 14 references