The data presented in this article were collected in 1987-88 as part of a larger study of rural policing. During this time mail questionnaires were sent to a rural county sample of law enforcement agencies in Illinois (counties that employed 30 or fewer full-time officers were designated "rural"). The sample consisted of 283 rural police officers in 28 counties. In addition to the questionnaire, researchers made site visits to two counties. Telephone interviews were conducted with a sample of community residents in two counties regarding their perceptions of police tasks, and personal interviews were conducted with some leading citizens in the two counties. The police questionnaire specified the following five job functions with definitional examples: administrative duties, patrol, community service, law enforcement, and keeping order. Findings were obtained from 151 completed and returned questionnaires. The primary finding of the study is that rural policing is qualitatively distinct from urban and suburban policing. Rural police are generalists rather than specialists; they spend considerable time on all of the activities of the five job functions. 8 tables and 21 references