Without a definition of the core mission for the police or a strategic policy statement, police accountability will continue to be elusive. Without a mission statement, police management cannot be improved to enhance effectiveness and efficiency. A review of police operations demonstrates that to conceive police activities as a simple input-output model does not reflect the true complexity of the issues of modern social control. To improve police operations, it is necessary to recognize these complexities and to manage police resources toward clearly defined and measurable objectives. Developments within the Northamptonshire Police can be used to illustrate the prospect for improving the police service. The strategy adopted in Northamptonshire followed a classic organization development process. While the Northamptonshire experience cannot and should not be replicated, it does point the way toward a general approach to improved policing based in the determination of performance goals, intensive preparation period, the public declaration of policy and performance criteria, and a commitment to evaluate performance and report the findings to the community. References are provided.