Study data were obtained from a longitudinal analysis of municipal police departments that involved a series of surveys in 1993, 1996, and 2000. This involved mail surveys of police chiefs from the same set of 281 municipal police departments in 47 States at approximately 3-year intervals since 1978. The dependent variables included the level of priority assigned to core-area police functions that reflected the crime-control, order-maintenance, and service-provision functions of policing. Five independent variables were used to test for the effects of a number of potentially important environmental and organizational variables believed to be associated with the prioritization of police functions. One of the independent variables was the extent of adoption of community-oriented policing programs. A fundamental objective of community policing is to increase the importance of the order-maintenance and service function in maintaining public safety. The statistical analysis used the pooled cross-sectional time-series (or panel data) method. The analysis concluded that the extent of implementation of community-oriented policing was a statistically significant predictor of all core functions of policing. The authors argue that community-oriented policing can be characterized as a comprehensive effort by local police to mount a balanced effort in the basic policing functions of controlling crime, reducing social disorder, and providing services to the citizenry. Future research is suggested to determine whether a long-term pursuit of community-oriented policing leads to a genuine reordering of priorities among the core functions of American policing. 2 tables, 75 references, and appended summary of indexes created, the survey instrument, a list of community-oriented policing programs and strategies, characteristics of participating city/agencies, and crime rate per 100,000 population