A contractual arrangement exists when one unit of government pays another unit of government or a private producer to provide a public service for its citizens. The major advantages of contracting are that the separation of demand and financing from production permits each function to be performed more effectively, and competition is introduced into the provision of public services. Burbank, a Chicago residential suburb of 30,000, incorporated in 1970, at which time it contracted with the CCSPD to continue the services it had been providing to Burbank as an unincorporated area. To evaluate the effects of contracting police services, Burbank was compared with the 17 other Cook County municipalities of similar size. Burbank was found to be receiving police services at much lower cost than similar-sized suburbs having their own police departments, yet it seems to be receiving comparable performance as measured by crime, arrest, and clearance statistics. Burbank has the fewest police officers per capita of any of the communities studied, which may affect routine services; for example, Burbank ranked last of the 18 communities in revenue from traffic fines for each of the last 3 years. This may indicate that Burbank is forced to concentrate on major crimes at the expense of other police services. Tabular data and 28 references are provided.