The political involvement, the corruption, the lack of national standards, and the resistance to change that have characterized American policing may all be attributed to local control. In support of local control, it is argued that this permits making law enforcement relevant to each community's special needs. It is questionable, however, that this concept warrants having 40,000 separate police agencies ranging in size from one- or two-person departments in small towns to New York's force of 30,000. The problem is further compounded by having law enforcement agencies at every level of government -- Federal, State, county, and local -- all with overlapping jurisdiction. Although there are procedures for coordinating the work of these agencies in many areas, they are only minimally coordinated and are not standardized. Ranks and salaries are not standardized, and each department is responsible for its own method of selecting recruits. Other disadvantages of locally-controlled police are lack of qualified personnel in small jurisdictions, limited budgets, lower salaries, poorer training, lack of specialized services, inferior equipment, and inability to cope with large-scale emergencies. Resistance to consolidation has stemmed from a reluctance to give up power and a mistrust of big government. The police will never become a profession as long as they are locally controlled, because this prevents the development of uniform standards for personnel and agencies. Fifty-six notes are listed.