Police as Problem Solvers
Published on 19. March 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
296 pages
978-1-4684-5918-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book is about police and police reform and about a movement called "problem-oriented policing," which is sweeping the country. The problem-oriented approach has been labeled "a philosophical revolution" and "the cutting edge of policing" (Malcolm, 1989). Two observers, Wilson and Kelling (1989), have written that the approach "con stitutes the beginning of the most significant redefinition of police work in the past half century" (p. 48). Such an esteemed development matters, and one expects knowledgeable persons to observe it and think about it. Our mission in this book is different from that of some observers, those concerned with management practice and philosophy. Ours is a more person-centered book, which views the problem-oriented move ment from the trenches where battles, not wars, are waged. We are concerned with what an erstwhile colleague of ours dubbed the "nitty gritty" and what others have called the "human equation." This is so because the core of our interest is on the experience of being problem oriented and how one engenders this experience. Coincidentally, such grass roots analysis happens to fit problem-oriented policing, which delegates thinking and planning to those on the frontlines. In the battles won by problem-oriented policing, ordinary police officers become generals or, at least, strategists of policing. The jobs that such men and women do are expanded, and we shall center on this expansion of the job.
More details
Edition
Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1991
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Research
Illustrations
296 p.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
466 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4684-5918-0 (9781468459180)
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4684-5916-6
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Hans Toch | J.Douglas Grant
Police as Problem Solvers
Book
06/1991
Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers
€109.13
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Content
1 The Advent of Problem-Oriented Policing.- The "End Product" of Policing.- Problems as Behavior Patterns.- Evolution of the Problem-Oriented Approach.- Timeliness of the Problem-Oriented Model.- Old Wine with New Label?.- From Native Wisdom to Problem Solving.- A Hypothetical Example.- Building on a Foundation.- 2 Police Officers as Applied Social Scientists.- The Newport News Experiment.- The Battle of New Briarfield.- Expanding the Process.- Applied Social Research.- Science and Experience.- Finding Researchable Problems.- 3 Participation and Work Enrichment.- The Human Relations School.- Climbing Maslow's Hierarchy.- Enriching Jobs.- The Work Reform Movement.- Who Does the Thinking and Planning?.- The Police Officer as a Problem Solver.- The Officer as "Intrapreneur".- 4 Problems of Planned Change.- Problems and Obstacles.- Sources of Resistance.- Force Field Analysis as a Requisite for Change.- Garnering Community Support.- Harnessing Human Resources.- Supportive Concepts.- Evolving a Paradigm.- Strategies.- Toward an Epidemiological Science of Problem-Oriented Policing.- 5 The Oakland Project.- The Oakland Police Department.- From Research to Reform.- Inception of the Program.- 6 Defining a Problem: First-Generation Change Agents.- Evolving a Joint Frame of Reference.- Facing Larger Implications.- The Inadequacies of the Academic Approach.- Prelude to Action.- The Travails of Planning.- The Fruits of Labor.- Review of Aims.- Two Steps Forward.- A Happening.- A Rebirth of Anxiety.- An Identity Crisis.- Task Force Activity.- Diminishing Returns.- The Feel of Success.- The Group Has a Guest.- An Unsuccessful Exercise.- Intensive Work.- Stage Fright.- A Full Measure of Success.- A Profile of Morale.- 7 Addressing the Problem: Inventing the Peer ReviewPanel.- The Interview Experience.- Foundation Building.- Germination.- A Side Trip.- Defining the Mission.- Constructive Conflict.- Tooling Up.- The Opening Night.- The Man Who Came to Dinner.- A Command Appearance.- A Study in Complexity.- Back to the Drawing Board.- Running Out of Steam.- Accomplishment.- An Interlude of Alienation.- The Interviewer as Theorist.- An Activity Profile.- A General Comment.- A Concluding Note.- 8 Addressing the Problem: Designing Family Crisis Teams.- Preliminary Explorations.- Tooling Up.- Shaping a Group Mission.- A Data-Processing Session.- Foundation Building.- Forging Links with Other Agencies.- Loveless Labor.- Fertilization and Cross-Fertilization.- A Spontaneous Review Panel.- Process and Product.- A Tortuous Interlude: Part I.- A Tortuous Interlude: Part II.- The End of the Tunnel.- A Loose End.- Final Comment.- 9 Implementing a Solution: Family Crisis Management.- Caveats and Rejoinders.- Group Problem Solving.- Peacekeepers as a Happy Breed.- Consumer Reaction.- The Referral Agencies: A View from the Bridge.- The Police as Referral Agency.- 10 Implementing a Solution: The Peer Review Panel.- The Walls of Jericho.- Kill and Overkill.- The New Man.- The Change Sequence: A Retrospective View.- From Changee to Changer.- The Importance of Being Perfect.- The Belated Rehabilitation of Officer White.- More Convincing Documentation.- The Incidence of Conflicts.- Injuries to Officers and Citizens.- Complaints against the Police.- The Initiation of Interaction.- The Type of Arrest.- Individual Productivity and Violence.- The Peer Review Panel.- What Could We Conclude?.- But Was It Problem-Oriented Policing?.- 11 Community Problem-Oriented Policing.- Being One's Own Police Chief.- Autonomy in Problem-Oriented Policing.- Autonomy andMorale.- But What of Quality Control?.- Composite Strategies.- How Does It Work?.- Studying Problems.- Linking Backyards.- 12 A Problem-Oriented War on Drugs.- Toward a Problem-Oriented Process.- Levels of Causation and Intervention.- Barriers to Cumulating Knowledge.- A War on What?.- Formal Problem-Oriented Interventions.- Sequencing.- Choice of Problem-Oriented Interventions.- Choice of Targets.- The Political Context of Problem-Oriented Drug Policing.- Postscript.- References.- Author Index.