Planning and successful organizational change in response to a changing environment are inextricably interwoven. The process spans multiyear time frames and requires sustained focus on the direction of change rather than on spastic exercises such as isolated new projects, special units, or organizational restructuring. Police departments with no planning history should focus on administrative flexibility and new managerial styles, skills and knowledge of change processes on the part of planners, breadth and complexity of topics addressed through internal planning and research, and recruitment of more individuals with planning expertise among staff. The progressive stages of planning through which organizations evolve are the following: spastic planning, maintenance planning, system expansion planning, technocratic planning, and problem-directed and people-directed planning. This progression represents development onward from the point at which a police organization recognizes the need for systematic planning, through establishment of internal systems and controls, to completely mounted systems supporting decisionmaking by personnel at its outer boundaries. The process implies direct relationships and interdependencies between the nature, organization, and subject matter of planning on one hand, and the managerial style and organizational sophistication of its host environment on the other. The institutionalization of competent broad-based planning processes in police agencies will require a time frame of many years. One chart is provided.