In preparation for the imminent Rage Against the Machine tour, police around the country are treating the arena shows as business-as-usual--unlike the band's 1997 tour, when Washington state police attempted to bar the band from the stage.

Police departments in Denver, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston and West Valley City, UT, all said they would follow normal security procedures for the upcoming concerts, detailing officers for traffic control and patrols inside and outside venues. In many cities, venues, rather than cities, pay for off-duty officers to serve as a security force. The venues contact an off-duty officer who hires other off-duty officers; they work in uniform and are charged to act in their normal capacity, according to the Denver police department.

Lt. Lance Call of the West Valley City police department said that his department liked the E Center venue where Rage Against the Machine will play on Nov. 23 and had never encountered serious problems there. He cited one instance where the police department was concerned about the ''pornographic videos'' in heavy-metal band Mötley Crüe's stage show, but the band met with police before their show and agreed not to show the material.

The normal preparations by city police contrast sharply with the actions of Washington state sheriff William Wiester during Rage Against the Machine's 1997 tour. At that time, Wiester had a detective collect information about the band from local police departments in the cities where it performed.

Fearing that the group could incite a riot with its activist stance, which in part criticizes police brutality, Wiester compiled documentation to have the band barred from playing the Gorge Amphitheater in Grant County, about 130 miles east of Seattle. The county superior court declined to grant an injunction against the group, which played the Sept. 12 show without major incident.

Although he lost the legal battle, Sheriff Wiester increased the number of police officers at the concert from 12 to 50, and the Gorge doubled private security. Deputies arrested more than 80 people for underage drinking or narcotics possession, according to the Seattle Times.

A Times reporter found that, despite this hard-line police attitude, concert-goers waiting in line to be searched for weapons and alcohol were peaceful: ''The cheerful teenage and twentysomething crowd looked more like it was headed to see a tennis match than a big, bad rock 'n' roll band.'' Wiester said he was surprised by the crowd's calm, attributing it to cool weather and police presence, the Times reported.

But this year's low-key preparations do not mean that police aren't interested in what happens in concerts in other cities. Police sometimes research a group before it comes to town, calling other police departments to find out what crowds were like and if the band caused problems. Lt. Tim Vino of the New Haven, Conn. police said his department occasionally did this kind of legwork, but the Dec. 5 Rage show was too far off to speculate whether it would for this one. Vino, who is familiar with the band, said he wasn't alarmed. ''We have a lot of acts in the city. Yale [University] is here. We're used to dealing with a lot of issues.''

A public information officer for the Chicago police department called collecting information on visiting bands ''spying.'' She also called attempts to prevents bands from playing ''censorship.''

The Philadelphia police is planning normal security and said it didn't have plans to investigate the band. But officer Jim Pauley hoped the press would tip him off about why added security might be necessary. ''Is there something we should know?'' he asked. He apparently wanted to strike a deal: ''When you find out what's going on with this act, you call us, and then we'll tell you what we're doing,'' he said.