Relying on earlier investigations, the authors discuss a set of performance characteristics that citizens might value and which would therefore become potential candidates for criteria in evaluating police performance. These include reducing crime and criminal victimization, holding offenders to account, reducing fear and enhancing security, structuring the burden of defending against crime, regulating public space and traffic safety, and emergency medical and social services. For each of these potential evaluation criteria for policing, the authors discuss its practical and principled value for citizens as a whole. Next, the paper outlines steps for ordering values worth pursuing by a publicly financed police department that is empowered to use the state's authority to accomplish both practical and principled goals. These steps are to distinguish utilitarian from principled values, order the importance of stakeholders and customers to be satisfied, distinguish aggregate values from the quality of individual transactions, create an ordered list of values to be pursued through public policing, and focus on the future in monitoring strategic adaptation and working relationships. 1 table and 39 notes