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Whilst the institutional architecture of British policing remains based on local provincial forces, such has been the degree of centralization that the policing structure of England and Wales has been described as a de facto national police force. An important part of this process has been the “managerialist” reforms developed by central government. However, within the overall picture of centralization, some countervailing tendencies are visible that suggest the possibility of enhanced local influence. England and Wales is thus seeing the emergence of a bifurcated policing system in which policing responses to such things as serious and organized crime, and terrorism, are becoming more centralized, whilst the policing of “ordinary” crimes and disorder are increasingly integrated into a broader community safety response at the local level.