The Police in the Community

1
The Police in the Community

• Chapter 4
• Problem Oriented Policing and Problem Solving

2
Student Objectives

• Who is credited with originating problem oriented
  policing?
• What problem solving requires police to do
• How efficiency and effectiveness differ? Which
  one is emphasized by community policing?
• What the 1st step in Goldsteins problem-oriented
  policing is?

3
Objectives Cont

• What 4 stages are used in the SARA model?
• What 3 areas problem analysis considers?
• What the magnet phenomenon is?
• Purpose and Goal of the DOC Model?
• What crime specific planning is?
• What effect mental locks and killer phrases have
  on problem?

4
Introduction

• A problem solving approach involves identifying
  problems and making decisions about how to best
  deal with them. A basic characteristic of
  community policing is that it is proactive
  instead of reactive. Proactive means we recognize
  a problem and seek to find the underlying cause.
  It is usually best to get to the source of the
  problem. This chapter focuses on a problem
  solving approach to policing.

5
Problem Oriented Policing (POP)

• Herman Goldstein originated (POP)
• He did not like incident driven police approaches
  to crime
• In the past, the telephone instead of community
  or management determined how resources would be
  spent

6
Problem Oriented Policing Cont
Goldstein further suggests that police will be
more productive if they respond to incidents as
if they are symptoms of underlying community
problems. He defines a problem as a cluster of
similar related incidents rather than a single
incident. Once the problems in a community are
defined police efforts can focus on addressing
the possible causes of the problem.
7
What Police are required to do

• Problem solving requires police to group
  incidents and thereby, identify underlying causes
  of problems within the community
• However they cannot ignore specific incidents.
  When they get a call they respond
• Problem solving has a dual focus. It requires
  that incidents be linked to problems. It also
  states police must spend a proactive amount of
  time determining community problems

8
Problem Solving Policing

• Police know that 60 of the calls come from 10
  of the homes.
• Wherever there is a murder in 8 out of 10 cases
  the police had responded before
• Problem solving policing relies heavily on
  citizen involvement
• Police must do more than they have done in the
  past to get citizens involved.

9
Community Programs

• Before any community involvement program is
  adopted it must get the blessing if the police
  and community members.
• At times well meaning groups can actually
  interfere with police effort and cause
  unnecessary destruction, injury, or death.
• Example Night time neighborhood watch program

10
Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving
(Cops)

• Community oriented policing means changing the
  daily work of the police to include investigating
  problems as well as incidents
• Instead of being reactive incident-driven we now
  are beginning to use proactive problem-driven
  policing

11
COPS Cont

• The city is a better source for community problem
  solving than with the police department. More
  citizens want to get involved at the community
  level.
• Police have rank and file officers in the
  departments who have not been used effectively
• Efforts to adopt and improve community policing
  in department has not been totally successful
  because departments will have to cut higher
  positions and reorganize to support change

12
Goldsteins 5 Concerns

• The 5 concerns that most strongly influenced the
  development of problem-oriented policing are
• The police field is pre-occupied with management,
  internal procedures, and efficiency to the point
  it excludes community problems.
• Police devote most of their resources to
  responding to calls from citizens who occupy to
  much of the officers time, therefore there is no
  time left to initiate ways to prevent or reduce
  community problems

13
Goldsteins 5 Concerns Cont..

• Agencies have available to them the rank and file
  officers whose time and talent have not been used
  effectively
• Efforts to improve policing have often failed
  because departments resist adjusting policies
  and going through and organizational restructure

14
Efficiency vs Effectiveness

• Efficiency means minimizing waste expense of
  unnecessary effort
• Effectiveness has to do with producing the desire
  goal
• Both are present in policing

15
Efficiency vs Effectiveness Cont

• Efficiency in traditional police departments is
  emphasized.
• For example we may need high staff levels to be
  able to respond to a call but this involves slack
  time
• Traditional departments see efficiency as rapid
  response to calls to get desired outcomes

16
Efficiency vs Effectiveness Cont..

• Effectiveness is the emphasis in community
  policing
• Not stopping your police car to help someone in
  need because you have another call may be
  efficient but not effective
• Goldstein says the focus on problems
  (effectiveness) rather than a smooth running
  department (efficiency) is a radical change that
  is difficult for some departments

17
The Sara Model 4 Stage Process

• The 4 stages of the SARA Problem Solving Model
  are
• Scanning
• Analysis
• Response
• Assessment

18
Scanning

• First you must identify the problem
• Officers must do this through personal experience
• They must also learn what the problem is by
  talking to residents

19
Analysis

• Analysis is learning the problems causes
• Here officers learn everything about the players,
  and incidents and develop a customized response
  to fit the problem

20
Response

• Officers develop a goal based on careful analysis
• The goal can be reached by using a customized
  response to fit the problem
• Solutions are designed to eliminate the problem
  and reduce the problem
• The problem could even be turned over to another
  agency who can better handle the problem

21
Assessment

• Officers evaluate the effectiveness of their
  response
• See if they achieved their goal
• Does the response meet with public support from
  businesses and residents?

22
Class Assignment

• Compare your group projects to the SARA Model

23
The End