The European Union consists of 27 countries with different history and cultural context. As the police are a part of the public administration, it is natural that national differences affect the organizations and tasks of the European police forces. Meanwhile, the growing international criminality and the need for international peace-building operations calls for more cooperation. It is reasonable to believe that an enhanced understanding of the differences within the union is important to increase the ability to cooperate. The study aims to raise the knowledge about policing in post-communist countries in the European Union by studying the police in Lithuania and Hungary. The study is based on the conventional theory about the decentralized and service-oriented Anglo-Saxon and the centralized security-oriented Continental policing traditions and on the theory about the police being protective, repressive, or predatory. The study explains differences in policing considering fundamental contextual constructions within the countries. It is based on written sources, such as laws regarding police work, previous research, and statistics about the level of corruption. The main finding is that in both countries (slightly more in Lithuania) since independence there has been an ambition to become more decentralized and service-oriented (following the Anglo-Saxon tradition). Still, at the same time, there has been a tendency towards centralism (following the continental tradition). This is more visible in times of internal disturbances but also seems connected with a lack of resources.