Despite the conclusion of a number of studies that community policing offers police officers greater job satisfaction, the findings are limited and should be viewed as preliminary at best. Previous research on job satisfaction and community policing has been limited to the study of a single police agency. Since there were differences in each study's methodology, as well as in the community-policing strategies used by each agency, these earlier findings provide little comparative data. Before community policing is universally adopted in hopes of addressing various community and organizational problems, law enforcement must gain a better understanding of the impact it will have on one of the more important factors in its success, i.e., the police officer. Regardless of the approach, the goals of future studies should include, but not be limited to, providing a checklist of elements for use by agencies considering implementing community policing; identifying those facets of both traditional and community policing that cause the greatest dissatisfaction for police officers; creating a survey instrument all police agencies could use to evaluate levels of job satisfaction among their officers; and solidifying the literature on job satisfaction and community policing. 14 notes