Police leadership is described as a social process that involves formally identified leaders, followers and the contextual factors comprising police work. Community policing is cited as an example of organisational change requiring shared leadership, or leadership manifested by individuals at all levels of a police organisation and the community stakeholders comprising the social context. Several broad theoretical accounts of leadership with relevance for police leadership are then sketched, with particular emphasis on transformational leadership theory. The transformational model focuses on several social processes that account for organisational change, and highlights the shared responsibility for leadership in order to effect such change. The transformational leadership model is viewed as the best available theoretical approach to help unify the police leadership research and development activities. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.