Community policing reinvents the previous beat police officer as a community police officer, who acts as a neighborhood organizer and problem solver, not just a visible deterrent to crime. The community officer's mission is to involve average citizens in determining which problems are highest priority and in developing community-based initiatives to address them. This decentralized and personalized form of policing breaks down the anonymity of traditional police efforts and helps confront fear of crime and neighborhood disorder and decay as well as crime itself. Examples of community policing are found in Newport, R.I., Eugene, Ore., and Columbia, S.C. Community policing also provides constant positive contact between minorities and the police, thereby offering an improved possibility of improving police-minority relations. Photographs