Community oriented Policing has been the central concept for policing in the Netherlands since a few decades. In this article, the diversity in implementation of this concept is discussed, as well as the practical and conceptual challenges of COP. It becomes clear that it is very difficult to implement all ingredients or principles of COP in practice, though this does not imply that police forces in the Netherlands have not embraced COP. Furthermore, the author emphasises that it is important to keep a clear view on the guiding principles of COP. In this contribution, these principles are discussed in view of their practical implementation in police forces.