Evidence is found to suggest that reform governments have a limited but significant influence on the adoption of community policing. Form of government and the type of municipal elections do directly influence community policing. The results demonstrate that the literature does explain some variation in community policing adoption across municipalities. Historically, the political environment has been crucial to understanding policing. Research shows that police organizations continue to be affected by the political structure of their municipality. This paper attempts to understand the role of the political environment in the implementation of community policing, using a model informed by the innovations perspective in addition to the criminal justice literature. The paper draws from a national sample of 428 police jurisdictions in a cross-sectional investigation using data combined from the 1997 and 2000 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Surveys (LEMAS), the 1997 Uniform Crime Reports, City/County Databook, Carroll’s Municipal Directory, as well as the 1990 U.S. Census. Tables, notes, and references