Against this backdrop, this paper attempts to understand a set of key practices which structure the response of the police to ASB in rural Scotland. These practices relate to the use of discretion, police community interaction and the situated knowledge that rural police officers tend to have of the community in which they police. While these features are also important to urban police responses to ASB, they acquire heightened importance for the way that the police in rural locations manage their response to ASB. Indeed, responding to ASB represents a significant resourcing challenge for the police, with large rural policing beats being covered by a small number of officers based in police stations which are often geographically removed from the communities for which they are responsible.