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The relationships between police and democracy are ambiguous and marked by a kind of deadlock between the defence of order and civic protection. Traditionally turned towards the logic of the “enemy within”, Brazilian police officers have since the 1980s been confronted with new requirements, stemming from democratization processes. The Authors examine this process of change from the beginnings of deployment of community policing in Aracaju, a town of the Nordeste region. Changes engendered by this type of policing are investigated, in the framework of the theory that the neighbourhood police contribute to the process of urban segmentation characteristic of the Brazilian model of social organization: in the middle-class districts, priority is given to a police presence in places where they can be seen; in contrast, in the poor districts, the local people are incited to contribute to financing police activity by means of the community police.