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The concept of coproduction of public services has captured increased attention as a potential means of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of local government. In this article we explore the concept of coproduction in an effort to sharpen the definition of that concept and add rigor to our understanding of the effects of coproduction in local service delivery and the processes by which coproductive activity occurs.In recent years, attention to the productive activities of consumers has increased. This attention is most common for service production (Fuchs, 1968;and Garn, et al., 1976 The role of consumers in producing public services has received particular attention. Partly in response to fiscal pressures and partly due to evidence regarding the inefficacy of their own unaided efforts, some public producers are increasing consumer involvement in service production (e.g., community anticrime efforts such as Neighborhood Watch or solid waste collection agencies' replacement of backyard with curbside trash pickup). In other service areas, consumers are demanding an increased role (e.g., parents and students working with groups like PUSH FOR EXCELLENCE to improve education services or the Wellness movement among health service consumers). Most analysts of pub-*This paper results from regular discussion among the several authors that have extended over the past 2 years. Parks took responsibility for getting these ideas on paper at this time.

This article explores a variety of predictors of citizens' compliance with police requests to cease misbehavior. Where possible, the authors attempt to closely replicate the 1996 model formulated by Mastrofski, Snipes, and Supina to explain citizen compliance in Richmond, Virginia. Data on police-citizen encounters (N = 989) are drawn from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods, conducted in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida. The analysis indicates that a variety of legitimating factors influence compliance; however, the model's overall explanatory power is weaker than expected. Policy makers and researchers pay a great deal of attention to what police accomplish when they make arrests-whether crime declines and whether the public's sense of safety rises. But as Bittner (1970) and many others (Brown, 1988;Muir, 1977;Wilson, 1968) have noted, arrest is a police power infrequently invoked to enforce laws and maintain order. Far more often than not, police rely on informal methods in pursuit of these goalsby merely asking or telling citizens not to misbehave. Such requests vary This article is based on data from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods, directed

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