Reformist solutions have shaped the present intellectual understandings of the police in North America. These ideas are essentially flawed, in that they have supported and even refined the pattern of means-oriented policing that is increasingly the accepted operating style in Anglo-American societies. This means-oriented pattern is a response to pressures in the political arena which have virtually forced the police to become concerned about 'scientific' administration and about crime control. The police should abandon the present means-oriented approach and adopt a critical incident approach. This involves the following steps: (1) name the incident and delineate major components (such as noise in a neighborhood at night); (2) list acts, actors, and opportunities; (3) identify police objectives in the incident; (4) gather data; (5) assess available resources; (6) set a time-frame and priority for a sequence of actions; (7) identify outcomes and rank preferences; (8) determine who, if anyone, is responsible and accountable in the police department for the incident; and (9) if a decision is made to act, set out a time-bounded operation and establish a date for reconsideration or termination. Such an approach to police management avoids the internal orientation that has characterized modern police administration, moves away from the notion of crime and crime-fighting as the basis for police work, opens up consideration of alternative interventions, and moves in the direction of regulation or management rather than the eradication of problems. Moreover, it provides a framework within which officers can evaluate their progress with respect to specific objectives within a given time frame. The conference discussion of the paper and 30 references are provided.