This article was designed to provide an overview of actual police response to elder abuse. In the late 1980's, elder abuse began to be criminalized. To date, most research on criminal elder abuse has focused on police perceptions of elder abuse or victimization fears of the elderly. In developing their analysis of police response to criminal elder abuse, the authors compare the law enforcement response to elder abuse to the response to domestic violence, stalking and drunk driving. Based on the police response to the other three newly criminalized activities, the authors developed a series of hypotheses regarding elder abuse response which they tested in an exploratory study using mail administered surveys of police chiefs in Alabama, California, Colorado and New York. Based upon the data submitted the authors found that most sampled departments did not employ special law enforcement programs or techniques in dealing with elder abuse cases, but the majority of departments did utilize the resources of social services agencies when faced with an elder abuse crime. The authors made policy and further research recommendations, including suggesting increased research on elderly victimization and the use of multidisciplinary research. 5 tables, 58 references