This chapter will discuss a number of initiatives pursued between 1997 and 2010 that affected police governance. These include the enhanced degree of central control within policing (such as the creation of the National Police Improvement Agency in 2006), and centralized control over policing (especially—but not exclusively—associated with the targets regime and accompanying bureaucratic control based on the principles of new public management). It will also evaluate the implications for police governance arising through the involvement of local government in crime prevention issues following the 1998 Crime & Disorder Act, and the use made of what was termed the ‘extended police family’ in the delivery of policing. This chapter will also consider the governance implications of inter-force collaboration (an approach which was pursued when amalgamation proposals—which are further discussed in Chapter 6 —were abandoned). A consideration of governance implications arising from the involvement of the police service in partnership work and changes to police methods associated with neighbourhood policing teams will also be evaluated in this chapter.