Across the United States and the United Kingdom, the concept of problem-oriented policing has been widely endorsed. Despite these endorsements, advocates of problem-oriented policing have expressed disappointment with these projects. This paper describes a problem-oriented policing project in the center-city of Charlotte, NC, under the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD), designed to reduce thefts from cars parked in center-city parking facilities. The major benefit of the project has been the deeper understanding acquired of the administrative and technical difficulties encountered by police in implementing problem-oriented policing. The purpose of the paper is to: (1) illustrate what is involved in a full implementation of problem-oriented policing by taking on a comprehensive, in-depth effort to address a specific piece of police business; (2) having focused on the problem of theft from vehicles, to develop specific strategies designed to increase the effectiveness of the CMPD in dealing with that problem; and (3) more broadly, to gain new insights into the complexities of introducing problem-oriented policing into a police agency. References