Aim: The aim of this study is to show how the police were attempted to be reorganised according to a democratic structure during the period of regime change. Methodology: Present study is based on a review of the domestic literature on the subject. Findings: In the author's view, public security organisations are the visible representatives of public power, whose duty it is to transmit democratic values. In the author's opinion, the development of the Hungarian police can even be seen as a forced path, because even after the regime change it was easier to continue with the tried and tested solutions, and the critical thinkers of the previous period did not see it any differently. Value: The author tries to prove that, contrary to misconceptions, the Hungarian police was seriously threatened by the new political and professional elite, which wanted to introduce a municipal police force instead of the former centrally controlled police force.