This paper compares migrants from Muslim majority countries (MMC) with Western European native-born school-children in terms of trust in the police, legitimacy conferred on police and compliance. The results show that migrants from MMC tend to trust and legitimate the police in their host country less and, as a result, to report lower levels of normative compliance. However, they report higher levels of habitual compliance than native-born respondents. Measures of structural conditions (i.e. deprivation and disorganisation) and of closeness to the host country (i.e. attachment to school and collective efficacy in neighbourhood) mediate these differences but do not eliminate them. Explanations for the differences in attitudes to the police are suggested in terms of group-level cultural distance and quality of integration.