These changes include alterations in police budgets, in the pattern of public support for the police, in police involvement with the media, and in the relationships between reform groups and police management. In addition, police officers have higher educational levels, forces are more mixed in terms of gender and racial group, there are greater legal constraints on police practice, and the police are losing their monopoly on legitimate violence. As a result, the language of economics and management has been used to reconceptualize the police mission and to reformulate police training. The economic metaphor for policing urges the public to regard policing in terms of supply and demand and in market-competitive terms which do not meet the reality of the distribution of police services. This economic conception denies the central role of the police, which is to use force to advance the interests of the State. 7 notes and 51 references