Police interventions aim to produce order and they frequently succeed, but the tendency of societies is to dislike the police. Certain social groups deplore what they view as excessive police intervention in spheres they believe should be reserved for social self-regulation. Threats to society are conceived in the following structural terms: objective aspect of threats (different forms of criminal activities); vulnerability of different social groups to criminal activities; ability of different policing sectors to resist pressures exerted by criminal activities and social instability; and different pertinent territories of police intervention. Criminal activities are analyzed in terms of threats, and the adaptation of policing to control criminal activities in diverse pertinent territories is discussed. Consideration is also paid to the debate over the confusing nature of police organizational structures, police resource mobilization, and police difficulties in responding to the needs of vulnerable societies.