A cross-section of the community held strong beliefs that the police should give priority to robbery with violence in the street, sexual assaults on women, the use of heroin or hard drugs, residential burglaries, and drunk driving. To audit the public's assessment of police effectiveness in dealing with crime, the survey asked them to evaluate police performance in seven areas that ranged from sexual assault to street fights. In every category of age, race, and sex, respondents viewed police as ineffective in dealing with all seven offenses. Other issues examined in the survey were crime control as a minority demand on the police, and the policy implications of a finding of high public crime-related demand on policing. The public's evaluation of the ability of the police to work within the law differed significantly by age group. Few people over 45 years old viewed the police as being unfair; however, over half of 16- to 24-year-olds believed the police do not treat people fairly. There was also a significant difference by race. Sixty-one percent of black residents viewed the police as being unfair in their treatment of citizens. Other topics considered in the survey and reported in this chapter are serious police misconduct, deterioration in police-public relations over time, willingness to cooperate with the police, stop and search, complaints against the police, and who should control the police. 42 tables