Community policing, the policing model in vogue over the last few years, has been brought to the fore in Belgium by the Federal Government within the framework of a local urban petty crime prevention policy. The political choices -- more pragmatic than philosophical -- on which the implementation of this policy are based have resulted in various differences of opinion. They reinforce trends that, in many respects, are the hallmark of Belgian policing policy overall and support the choices criminal policy is having to confront, choices made as a matter of emergency in response to the perceived increasing anxiety of the public at large. 20 references