Seventy‐nine students completed a questionnaire designed to measure their attitudes towards the police in Britain. In addition they were asked to fill in Christie's Machiavellianism scale. In general, high Machiavellianism was associated with negative attitudes towards the police. The favourability of respondents' views about the police varied greatly with the particular aspect of police behaviour under consideration. Differential perceptions of the police with respect to Machiavellianism are discussed in terms of the occupational role of the policema