Four themes central to situational policing of drug markets are: (1) the necessity of identifying and analyzing drug hotspots, (2) the relevance of police crackdowns to situational initiatives, (3) strategies of place management that can modify the environments of drug dealing sites, and (4) the potential problem of crime displacement. The analysis discusses these themes with respect to a study of a crime analysis program in New Bedford, Mass., to identify addresses with repeated drug activity; a study of the effects of New York City's tactical narcotics teams, which conducted short-term, intensive narcotics enforcement in designated areas; and the case of Operation Welwyn, the police contribution to a multi-agency crime prevention initiative in King's Cross, London, England. The analysis concludes that the six crucial elements of successful multi-agency preventive initiatives against local drug markets are: (1) appropriateness of intervention, (2) intensity of intervention, (3) leverage, (4) sustained action, (5) sensitivity to community relations, and (6) evaluation. Case examples, tables, and 34 references