An ex-police officer and current professor of criminal justice makes observations regarding the nature of policing, political influences in police work, and police legal and technical limitations that have implications for community crime prevention activities. He contends that police resistance to community crime prevention programs arises from poor citizen understanding of police work. Citizen groups should remember that the police force is and executive agency under the mayor, who is ultimately responsible for police actions. They should understand that police need citizen information -- promptly reported with specific descriptions of crime suspects. Community programs should focus on mayoral responsibility, innovative patrol uses, citizen reporting encouragement, Operation Identification programs, and departmental guidelines for police weapons use that narrow the scope of the law. A lawyer skilled in community relations reviews the history of community involvement in crime prevention. He notes the emergence of community crime prevention programs concurrently with Federal funding opportunities, their timeliness in the current political climate where lobbying is respected, and the likelihood that they will continue to be federally funded on their own merits. He sketches the gradual emergence of autonomy for community programs under Federal funding; such programs originally required local acceptance but ultimately received direct grants. A cooperative working relationship between community groups and local agencies is seen as the trend for the future.