It is argued that recruitment and selection criteria must be based on two major considerations: (1)that the primary goal of any police force must be to identify the contemporary needs of the community it serves and to structure its occupational roles and personnel policies in conformance with those needs and (2) that selection processes must be consistent with the profile of desirable police personnel characteristics. The first consideration suggests that there be the widest possible participation by all elements of society in defining police goals, roles, and policies. The second requires that selection be based on an assessment of the optimal cognitive and personality attributes for appropriate and successful performance of police responsibilities, including the physical, emotional, intellectual, and psychological characteristics needed for coping with the pressures and stressors of the profession. New, multidimensional roles require new personnel. Active recruitment efforts are needed to attract candidates of the highest possible caliber and possessing the cognitive complexity and interpersonal sensitivity necessary to these new roles. Selection procedures are needed which will select-in, rather than screen out, such candidates with a high level of job-relevant predictive validity and reliability. Long-overdue and determined efforts are needed to ensure the realization that the most valuable police resource is its manpower. Included are 111 references.