Community policing is also based in a different view of the status and role of community institutions in guiding and assisting police operations. Overall, community policing requires that police agencies become proactive organizations that address a variety of conditions that tend to disrupt community peace or adversely affect the community's quality of life. Under such a regime, the individual police officer becomes a thinking professional who uses imagination and creativity to identify and solve problems, instead of a reactor to events that have already occurred, limited by rigid guidelines and regulations. In community policing, the police officer is encouraged to develop cooperative relationships in the community, guided by values and purposes, rather than constrained by rules and excessive supervision. To facilitate such policing, thought must be given to the design of the structure of police organizations and to recruiting, selecting, training, and supporting officers in the field. Changes must be made in all of these areas to create a new police professionalism. 45 notes