Presents data from two surveys and arguments in favour of a restructuring of the police service, in general, and police training in particular. Contends that to keep up with an everchanging world, the police has to become more versatile itself, without losing sight of its core functions: protection and security provision. These objectives can only be achieved by a police force that cooperates intensively with the people, i.e. relies on a community-oriented approach to policing, and one whose members have been provided throughout their training with problemsolving skills and techniques and have developed a high degree of self-motivation. Suggests that in the current social and economic climate there is an urgent need for such reforms, best achieved through international cooperation.

Considering earlier research into police use of force as well as the judicial and practical frame of police work in Germany, the article presents the results of an empirical study on the individual and collective legitimization of the use of force by German police officers. There are numerous justifications for the use of force expressed by focus group participants in eight German Federal States who were responding to a hypothesized scenario. In the discussions observed within the groups, reference is first made to the state's duty to prosecute alleged offences and the measures or formal actions to do this-hence, the legal authority to use force. In the course of the discussions, however, it became obvious that illegal violence may occur, although it was not perceived as such by the officers. Overall, and after an intensive analysis of the focus group discussions, it can be stated that use of force (whether legal or not) depends on the police officer's perception of the resistance of the person being engaged with. In this regard, different social-cultural or physicalmaterial factors can be identified. They have different influences on the individual legitimization of police actions, intertwined with the perception of the situation as constructed by the officer. Three ways of perceiving the situation can be deduced, resulting in different patterns of justification for the use of force.

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