NCJ Number
104314
Date Published
1987
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The police department of Newport News, Va., has been testing problem-oriented policing, an alternative form of policing that focuses on the underlying circumstances that lead to crime incidents.
Abstract
In contrast to standard policing, which responds to individual incidents, problem-oriented policing focuses on underlying causes and gathers data from a variety of sources to define specific problems. Problem-oriented policing has four parts: (1) scanning individual events to group incidents that are related and to define problems; (2) analyzing the problem and possible solutions, using data from many public and private sources; (3) responding to the problem by means of a program of action; and (4) assessing the impact of the efforts. The National Institute of Justice has sponsored the problem-oriented policing project in Newport News. The department chose prostitution-related robberies, apartment burglaries, and thefts from parked vehicles as test problems. The police efforts targeted to these problems have reduced downtown robberies by 39 percent, burglaries in an apartment complex by 35 percent, and thefts from parked vehicles outside a manufacturing plant by 53 percent. Figures, photographs, 9 references, and source of additional information on the Newport News project.