Prolific Offender Projects (POP) are predicated on the notion that a small number of offenders are responsible for a large proportion of acquisitive crime. The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act in England and Wales, with its emphasis on multi-agency responses to crime, facilitated the emergence of POP’s in the United Kingdom. Recent POP efforts have involved the partnership of police and probation services, which work in concert with other agencies to prevent crimes by chronic offenders. The successful establishment and implementation of POP’s depends upon the working relationship of different, and often “mutually suspicious,” agencies within a possibly skeptical environment. The current analysis draws data primarily from an evaluation of the Stoke POP, which involved observations and interviews. The analysis focused on how agencies can reconcile long-standing tensions to work effectively together toward a criminal justice goal. The key characteristics of current POP’s in England and Wales are identified; the central feature of POP’s is the combination of intensive supervision from both the police and probation services. The Stoke POP is described, which identified and targeted prolific offenders who were arrested for committing acquisitive crimes in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. A key question was the extent to which project staff retained distinctive professional profiles versus the extent to which the adopted the characteristics of their partner organization. The author uses Nash’s (1999) concept of the “polibation officer” in which Nash argues that probation officers have moved away from their social work roots and toward a more central role in the management of community punishments. The current analysis considered the development of a “polibation” ethos within the POP project team, the analysis of project location, and the need to establish the value of the project. While POP’s do challenge traditional organizational structures, the analysis found no evidence of the existence of a “polibation” officer. Two key characteristics are identified as central to fostering understanding of POP’s within their operating environments: effective communication and line management. Notes, references