Both community policing and problem-oriented policing are in difficulty. Each developed in response to a different problem, captured the imagination and commitment of many police officers, and experienced serious implementation obstacles. Community policing has tended to take off most successfully where least needed -- in low-crime, low-disorder areas. Problem-oriented policing has been fragile. Most of what has been delivered has been small scale and at the level of the neighborhood. Problem-oriented policing has suffered by being yoked to neighborhood-based community policing. There are conditions in which local neighborhood dynamics are responsible for problems and where neighborhood organizations can play a significant part in helping to overcome problems. The police can help facilitate and catalyze changes that are needed. Some problems that might best be addressed by high-level problem solving might need to be dealt with effectively as possible in the interim within the neighborhood. The tendency to frame and respond to all problems roughly in terms of neighborhood dynamics limits what can be achieved. If the police are to move in the direction of greater effectiveness, equity, and efficiency, one way of doing so might be by separating problem-oriented and community policing and making community policing contingent for dealing with some forms of problems. Community policing might still be needed for its symbolic value, but this doesn’t mean it is the organizing principle for all policing. 3 tables, 58 citations