Critic: Problem-Oriented Policing: The Disconnect between Principles and Practice

Problem-oriented policing works to identify why things are going wrong and to frame responses using a wide variety of innovative approaches (Goldstein, 1979). Using a basic iterative approach of problem identification, analysis, response, assessment, and adjustment of the response, this adaptable and dynamic analytic approach provides an appropriate framework to uncover the complex mechanisms at play in crime problems and to develop tailor-made interventions to address the underlying conditions that cause crime problems (Eck & Spelman, 1987; Goldstein, 1990). Many police departments have experimented with the approach and the available evaluation evidence suggests that problem-oriented policing is a fundamentally sound approach to controlling crime and disorder problems (Skogan & Frydl, 2004; Weisburd & Eck, 2004; Braga, 2008; Weisburd et al., 2010). The US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Proactive Policing recently reviewed the more rigorous evaluations of problem-oriented policing and concluded that these programs lead to short-term reductions in crime and disorder (Weisburd & Majmundar, 2018).