Starting from a definitional approach to the concept of citizen participation in the context of police task performance, participation always means accepting a limiting degree of citizen involvement in favor of operational security planning. This is an informal process, as no participation processes in police work are regulated by law. In addition, citizen participation procedures are subject to significant institutional resistance. This is followed by a practical description of three levels of participation and their assigned formats with an increasing degree of citizen involvement: participation as information, consultation, and cooperation.