The study was guided by a modified systems approach, where variations in commitment to certain production strategies were viewed as resulting from three basic forces -- socioeconomic environment, political/governmental influences, and crime milieu. Using sample and partial correlation techniques, the study found that all three environmental pressures had important but varying influences on intermediate-level law enforcement policies. Both a political revenue effort and crime indicator were more closely related to the expenditure/manpower variable than were any of the socioeconomic characteristics. Path analysis revealed that a city's demographic composition was largely an indirect determinant of the community's financial commitment to the police function. For two of the four production strategies, demographic influences were especially important when compared with political and crime factors; on the other hand, for those policies more likely to affect citizens' lives directly (manpower levels and community relations programs), certain political measures, along with the crime environment, mattered most. No evidence linked reformed city governments with more progressive police practices. Findings would indicate that innovative police practices do not spread uniformly among large city departments and that different dimensions of professionalization are not related to the same environmental influences. Notes, 26 references, and tabular and graphic data are provided. (Author abstract modified)