According to community policing advocates, police agencies should implement a variety of important organizational changes. These changes are supposed to occur in a number of different substantive domains, including the culture, behavior, and structure of police organizations. This paper examines the evidence for change in just one of these domains: formal organizational structure. Based on concepts derived from organization theory, and using data from six different data sets, the paper explores whether the structures of US police organizations changed during the 1990s. Overall, it finds mixed evidence. Some changes have occurred in the direction encouraged by community policing reformers, some changes have occurred in the opposite direction, and some changes have not occurred at all. T h e E m era ld R es ea rc h R e g ister fo r th is jo u rn a l is a v a ila b le a t http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister T h e c u rren t is su e a n d fu ll tex t a rc h iv e o f th is jo u rn a l is a v a ila b le a t http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1363-951X .htm Portions of this research were supported by grant # 98-IJ-CX-0003 from the National Institute of Justice. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of the US Department of Justice. The authors are grateful to Jeremy Wilson and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on an earlier draft. Community policing and organizational structure The community policing movement is complex, woven together over time from a number of separate reform strands both within and outside of policing (Maguire and Mastrofski, 2000). Community policing reformers urge changes in many different substantive areas, from problem-solving and crime prevention efforts to new methods of supervision, management, and administration. Changes in the formal structure of police organizations constitute only one part of the community policing movement. For some commentators, structural changes are the most important part of community policing, while for others such changes represent mere tinkering (Gianakis and Davis, 1998; Maguire, 1997; Mastrofski, 1998; Redlinger, 1994). Regardless of one's stance on the relative importance of structural changes, most reformers view them as one part of an overall shift to community policing. People often use the term``organizational structure'' to refer to an expansive or nonspecific list of organizational characteristics. Among organization theorists, however, the term has a more specific meaning. We begin this section by defining organizational structure. We then outline seven structural features that are prominent in organizational theory and research, all of which play a role, whether explicit or implicit, in the reform agendas of community policing advocates. According to Maguire (2002): Organizational structure is the formal apparatus through which organizations accomplish two core activities: the division of labor and the coordination of work.