Problem-oriented policing in England and Wales: barriers and facilitators

Identifying the adoption of policing styles: A methodology for determining the commitment to problem-oriented policing amongst police forces in England and Wales

“…Studies such as Sidebottom et al (2020) should be conducted annually (including data reporting for individual police forces), whilst PEEL assessments should also include a detailed analysis of problemsolving practices across police forces. The development of a national problem-solving monitoring and recording system (Bullock et al, 2021b) or a questionnaire akin to LEMAS could be trialled to determine the extent of involvement in problem-solving projects for this purpose. Publicly available data would make a future assessment of the commitment to POP (and the subsequent impact on crime) much easier and remove the need to use retrospective, proxy measures.…”

“…The total number of projects or the amount of funding received by a police force were deemed to reflect a wider culture of POP within the force, but we have limited evidence that POP practice spread wider than the projects we have measured or that POP was force-wide practice. Furthermore, when the individuals acting as the driving forces for POP exit a police force or move roles, the initial burst of a POP orientation can quickly wither and die and represent a flash in the pan as opposed to a sustained transformation in organizational culture in terms of policing styles (Scott, 2000;Bullock et al, 2021b).…”

Reflections on developments in urban security across europe over the last 30 years: trends and enduring tensions

“…I view these pockets of achievement as exciting and pointing the way but sprinkled among a vast sea of police operations that remain traditional and familiar (Goldstein, 2018, p. 3). Despite all the organisational and technological developments, which should have enabled greater progress, a genuinely problem-oriented approach remains stubbornly unfulfilled (see Bullock et al, 2022b). Gloria Laycock reflected in interview: I think we've got a huge amount of knowledge about how to solve problems… And I think the police need to behave like engineers.…”

“…It has long been recognised that in its design and implementation crime prevention and urban security interventions demand collaboration through multi-stakeholder responses and the police alone cannot prevent crime. However, delivering effective problem-oriented partnerships remains decidedly problematic (Berry, Briggs, Erol and van Staden, 2011;Crawford and Cunningham, 2015;Bullock et al, 2022b). Enduring challenges pertain to the pursuit of multi-stakeholder urban security networks through horizontal exchanges of shared information, knowledge, resources or other transactions that cut across vertical intra-organisational priorities, and which pay scant regard to the task of managing inter-organisational relations.…”