The meanings of communit policing are based upon unstated asumption about the aims and objectives of community policing and are embedded in current political sentiments. Ten assumptions of community policing are set forth, including the following: (1) people yearn for nonadversarial personal contact with police; (2) the public is more concerned about crime than disorder; and (3) there is a single public, a single public mood, and a 'common good.' All of the assumptions are ideologically based and wishful extensions of a political and moral perspective; they represent a projected view of the world shared by police and reformers. The political and moral context of the wish for community policing is compared with current police organization and practice. Community policing is visible, available, personal, and generalist; bureaucratic policing is invisible, indirectly available, impersonal, and specialist. Thus, much of the political rhetoric about community policing is ideology and represents a wish to return to the past and to respond to public yearnings. If a community police scheme is to be successful, it will require structural and legal change and changes in habits of dispute settlement and definition, organizational structure, performance evaluation, and reward structures. within the police. In addition, new definitions of crime control and crime prevention will be needed. 29 references are included.