Individuals with experience in police organizations frequently contend that people who actually achieve police executive status do not win their positions by following formally prescribed bureaucratic procedures and that the system does not necessarily promote the most industrious, competent, and intelligent. To test this viewpoint, researchers compiled personal data, educational history, employment experience, and career movement information relating to 65 people who, during a 10-year period beginning in the mid-1960's, served as the top officials in the Alaska Department of Public Safety or one of the 25 largest police agencies. Analysis revealed that only 25 percent of the career progression patterns of the successful executives reflected the formal career ladder of the police agency which employed them. However, the career mobility patterns of these top police executives consisted of complex position-to-position patterns and, in some cases, agency-to-agency patterns. The patterns can be classified into three different career path typologies: multiagency path, inside path, and lateral transfer path. The executives' most common route, the multiagency path, includes service as a municipal officer, service as a trooper, responsible experience in a non-State governmental law enforcement agency or private company, and return to the Department of Public Safety as the Commissioner. The inside path model involves uniformed patrol service for the minimum time, transfer to investigation and vice operations, promotion to sergeant, promotion to captain, and competition for the police chief position. The lateral transfer path was the mobility pattern followed by executives in police departments of cities of less than 10,000 population. Two tables, 5 footnotes, and 11 references are included.