The discussion distinguishes such interrelated concepts as human relations, public relations, and community relations, and assesses the impact of social change upon police performance and public expectations. It emphasizes that police-community relations are generally positive in relation to issues over which a high degree of consensus exists, but problematic when there is a lack of consensus over what constitutes acceptable behavior. The policy and practice of police public relations is discussed in terms of the media, police corruption, and recent police department efforts to exhibit honesty and accessibility in their dealings with the public. The police dilemma of confronting delinquent youths with justice and discretion is analyzed as a source of potential public discontent. Similarly stressful is police action in crowd control and the negative image it engenders. The discussion describes collective behavior and points to the police officer's role conflict as the 'angry protector.' Rural policing is another area of potential dissatisfaction with police protection, since modern farm life makes rural homes targets for crime. Still another problem is racial and ethnic minorities, who perceive police officers as representatives of the 'establishment' rather than the 'people.' Among tangible steps to ameliorate these areas of police-community conflict, the text advocates employment of minority police officers and police training in community relations. It cites equal employment efforts being pursued in various police departments and describes programs where citizen involvement with crime prevention has vastly improved police-community relations. Charts, photographs, footnotes, a summary, discussion questions, and a suggested readings list are given with each chapter. The appendix contains the police-media relations policy of the Police Department of Burlington, Iowa. Author and subject indexes are given.