While problem solving partnerships are the foundation of community policing, what matters most is how goals are selected, how participants work together to accomplish the goals, whether the goals are accomplished and whether community capacity is developed. Community action against crime will obviously have a greater effect if it takes place in the context of a concerted effort to produce locally accessible jobs, decent education and hope for young people. The impact of community action would also be greater in the context of efforts to improve housing stock, business investment and transportation in poor and at-risk communities. But even in the absence of broader efforts, local anticrime action is valuable. It can raise people's sense of efficacy and increase community cohesion, reduce crime, improve the quality of life and heal a part of the rift between government and citizens. Notes