During the 1990's, community safety programs developed in many areas of the U.K., but there was considerable variation among different localities. This article concludes that the scale and speed of the changes can largely be explained by the effects of the "reinvention of government", which, at the local level, occurred through community governance. The theory of policy networks, and particularly the idea of power dependency, helps to explain the development of the community safety approach, but also why there have been significant variations. The article focuses on three criteria of governance: coherent and coordinated responses to local problems, accountability, and durability. Finally, it considers a number of strategic dilemmas likely to arise in community safety partnerships and, more generally, in networking as a governing technique, and concludes that this approach is likely to face a number of significant challenges. Tables, notes