Problem Oriented Policing Essay

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Traditionally police departments in the United States and throughout the rest of the world have reacted to crime rather than using proactive practices to reduce crime. However, a new era of policing is beginning to dawn, the era of problem-oriented policing. According to Professor Herman Goldstein, problem-oriented policing is a policing strategy that involves the identification and analysis of specific crime and disorder problems in order to develop effective response strategies in conjunction with ongoing assessment. Police agencies throughout the world are beginning to focus on the underlying problems that cause criminal activity rather than just pursuing criminals who have already acted illegally. With that being said, there have been many challenges which have stalled the progress and implementation of problem-oriented policing. Some of these challenges include the lack of understanding of the problem-oriented policing method, lack of officer participation, lack of community involvement, time management problems, and the lack of interagency cooperation.
The problem-oriented policing model is based around the specification of a problem. A major problem with problem-oriented policing today is the misinterpretation of incidents as problems. Goldstein defines a problem as either: (1) a cluster of similar, related, or recurring incidents rather than a single incident, (2) a substantive community concern, or (3) a unit of police business. There needs to be a clear cut strategy put in place which outlines who identifies problems and who carries the responsibility of resolving those problems. The misinterpretation of incidents as problems is a direct consequence of making line officers the central actors in problem identific...

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...o take part in face to face interviews where they would be asked about the successes and failures of problem-oriented policing within their departments. The research was primarily qualitative which counteracts the inability to get a larger sample size. The captains were subjected to the five questions that follow: (1) What are some of the types of projects/problems that have been addressed with problem-oriented policing? (2) What do the captains attribute their successful or failed problem-oriented policing projects to? (3) What do the captains feel are some of the general keys or general obstacles to successfully engaging in problem-oriented policing efforts? (4) What have the captains learned from actually engaging in problem-oriented policing? (5) How do the captains emphasize problem-oriented policing to officers under their command? (Ikerd, 2010, pg. 494).

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