In recent years, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary has supported government efforts to develop a “performance culture” within the service. To this end, “families of forces” have been proposed, with the intention that forces’ performance may be compared with others that operate in similar environments. There have been simultaneous developments in the adoption by forces of defined “policing styles”, some of which have received statutory backing in a bid to reduce crime rates. This article argues that if forces adopt particular policing styles in objective response to their environments, there should be consistency of policing styles within each family of forces. In fact, no link between families of forces and policing styles is apparent. Furthermore, it is suggested that particular policing styles may be suited to tackling different aspects of criminality, that their integration will present structural and resources problems, and that the potential for policing to reduce crime levels remains limited.