The established understanding of the shift to the problem solving orientation of community policing is that it arose from an assessment by the police and the scholars who have worked with them of their role and strategies. Those who accept this story assert that this assessment led to a series of innovative practices in a few police agencies. These innovations, in turn, led to the emergence of a new paradigm of policing. However, this story omits some crucial factors. A second story emphasizes the impacts of the emergence of strategies for the provision of security outside the government and the police. The second story argues that policing is not something that the police own, that the move from bandit catching to problemsolving has occurred on a massive scale without requiring a change in the police role, that the impact of this change has been limited mainly to policing relatively affluence communities, and that the move has emerged as a result of global changes that have promoted the development of private governments. Both stories need to be recognized if community policing is to be understood. Note and 16 references