DURING THE 10 YEARS OF POLICE COMPUTER EXPERIENCE SINCE THE CRIME COMMISSION REPORT OF 1967 CALLED FOR USE OF TECHNOLOGY, THERE WAS A SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN USE. DRAWING ON TWO NATIONAL SURVEYS OF UNITED STATES POLICE DEPARTMENTS AND A SERIES OF CASE STUDIES ON RESOURCE ALLOCATION MODELS AND POLICE COMMAND AND CONTROL APPLICATIONS, THE RESEARCH PROVIDES USEFUL INSIGHTS CONCERNING COMPUTER SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION. SURVEY WORK INDICATES THAT COMPUTER USE IS INCREASING FOR ROUTINE APPLICATIONS OF REPETITIVE DATA PROCESSING, BUT THAT THE GROWTH RATE OF THE TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN SLOWER THAN HAD BEEN PREDICTED IN THE EARLY 1970'S. FURTHER, WHEN COMPUTER APPLICATIONS EXTENDED BEYOND ROUTINE USES TO NONROUTINE EFFORTS, SUCH AS RESOURCE ALLOCATION WHERE THE MACHINE IS A DECISIONMAKING TOOL, RESULTS ARE DISAPPOINTING. THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS BECOMES COMPLEX, AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES ARISE. THE CONSTANT TECHNOLOGY CHANGE SERVES TO REMIND OFFICIALS THAT SUCCESSFUL COMPUTER USE REQUIRES MORE THAN JUST TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS. GREATER ATTENTION MUST FOCUS ON EVALUATING AND IMPLEMENTING SYSTEMS, WITH EMPHASIS ON PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES AND ON THE BROAD POLICE ROLE IN SOCIETY. SPECIFIC DISCUSSION REFERS TO THE STUDY, WHICH FOUND THAT 70 PERCENT OF CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 100,000 USED COMPUTERS IN THEIR POLICE WORK. AN APPENDIX SUMMARIZES THE ISSUE AREAS AND RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING COMPUTER APPLICATIONS BY THE POLICE. FOOTNOTES ARE PROVIDED.