This issue of Cahiers of Police Studies / Journal of Police Studies is devoted to tides and currents in police theories. Many different topics will be discussed. In this contribution we present a brief and introductory overview of the history of police research and subsequently discuss the role theories of policing have been playing in the past. We hope that this frame will offer a reference that helps the reader understanding the other contributions in this volume. We will concentrate on police work and the relationship between police work and the police organization. At the end we formulate some themes which might have an impact on policing and on police theories in the near future.