The paper begins by providing theoretical background information on police functions and policing changes and then introduces different types of public police organizations and their structures. The author contends that policing in Turkey has always been highly centralized but that there is a slow trend toward decentralization. He indicates that centralization is encouraged to secure the government against political and separatist radicalism. Further, he believes that the slow trend toward decentralization is an effort to find alternative ways of alleviating problems in the existing police system. As evidence of decentralization, more powers and responsibilities are being given to provincial organizations of the national police, and some regional organizations are being established. Although there is evidence of decentralization, the process is likely to take a long time because the major national organizations in charge of the police are constitutionally parts of a government with a centralized image. 41 references