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Who Ya Gonna Call? The Police as Problem-Busters

William Spelman

Current police practice is dominated by two, competing strategies—"community policing" and "crime control policing." Both are limited: they each apply a standard set of police tactics to a wide variety of differing circumstances; they focus on incidents, rather than the underlying problems which cause these incidents. Recently, two police departments have developed an alternative. Through "problem-oriented policing," officers focus on these underlying causes. They collect information from numerous sources, and enlist the support of a wide variety of public and private agencies and individuals in their attempts to solve problems. Case studies in these departments show that use of the problem-oriented approach can substantially reduce crime and fear. In the long run, problem-oriented policing will require changes in management structure, the role of the police in the community and the city bureaucracy, and the limits of police authority.

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