The crime audit has become a major technology of local crime prevention and community safety. It is a requirement of the United Kingdom’s 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. The audit is identified as the principal means of collecting and analyzing information about crime that can be used to inform local crime reduction strategies. This article focuses on the impact of the crime audit as a governmental practice and political strategy. It begins by examining the practice of crime auditing and proceeds on to examine the wider significance of the crime audit which can be viewed as a technical process, as well as a governmental practice and political strategy. The article also illustrates one aspect of the crime audit’s transformative potential by reference to a brief case study of drug outreach agencies’ encounters with their local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) in the course of the auditing process. The local audit studied here illustrates that the local crime audit is more than a technical tool; it imposes a change in the nature of the work. When examining the crime audit, it is necessary to recognize that its influence is conveyed as a part of such discourses and programs, particularly associated with new public management. References