The author believes that for community policing to be successful as a reform strategy, police agencies must apply its principles to all aspects of their mission. Community policing should not be viewed as a program, but rather as a philosophy that should permeate all aspects of a police agency. This includes the one area of police operations about which agencies are the most zealous in defending from outside influences, the authority of police to use physical force. The first section of this article illustrates the inherent difficulty of reconciling the philosophy of community policing with the legitimate need of the police to use force in performing their assigned responsibilities. The second section of the article provides suggestions for involving the public in the use-of-force debate. The third section introduces a strategy for educating communities about police use of force, and the last section poses several questions for future research on the effect of community policing on the use of force by police. In its discussion, the article advises that there are a number of methods police agencies can use to obtain useful, widespread public input into the policymaking process. One way is through meetings with existing community groups; community surveys are another proven method for measuring public attitudes and opinions. Other approaches are the use of police-sponsored citizen forums and citizen advisory boards. 37 references