For a long time, police actions were devoted exclusively to preservation or coercion, without regard for current needs. In its functions in the judicial or regulatory system, however, the police force is essentially an institution of the present. Definitions of the police should reflect the political and administrative processes that determine police policy. A new balance may be necessary between the regulatory system and the judicial system to permit the police to demonstrate its social role adequately. Three types of police can be envisaged using a modification of Habernas' political models. The first is a low level force occupied exclusively with executing decisions, while the second reflects the concerns of a technocracy. The third type exists in a pragmatic state and is involved in a dialogue with science, the social and moral system, and ultimately with the public by means of the media. This is an optimistic model that helps the police to make better use of the autonomous status conferred upon it by modern society in response to an irreducible sociopolitical need. Footnotes are included.