The Police Law of 1957 placed the local police in charge in cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants and the national police in charge in cities with less than 10,000 inhabitants; control of the remaining communities was determined on a separate basis. The mayors were made responsible for local police and public order, while the Minister of Justice was responsible for the national police and judicial police tasks. The Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs could develop general guidelines. In the view of the government the arrangement represented a balanced compromise. Critics called the arrangement a political solution to a power struggle reached without police or public input. A 1969 police reform bill was rejected because the bill retained the system with two kinds of police and because no single, responsible police organization could develop under the plan. The 1973 Note in Question and the 1975 Memorandum do not provide a clear definition of the position and function of the police in modern society. According to these documents, the new organization of the police must be based on efficiency, decentralization, and dualism of authority. However, efficiency is not clearly defined, the question of whether decentralization and democratization of the police can be achieved through traditional institutions or some unnamed form of direct police-public contact is left open, and the problems of dividing powers between separate ministries remain. It is concluded that the police have developed since the war as a concept of the government rather than as the result of analyzing the problems of society or the needs of the public. The position of the police is the result of a power struggle within the government between administrative and judicial authorities and between central and local organizations. The role of the police is defined in stereotype legal or administrative terms, without any real specifications on police function or any attention to public need. Notes are supplied.