NCJ Number
194010
Date Published
September 2001
Length
59 pages
Annotation
This guidebook provides police practitioners with a resource for conducting problem analysis. It identifies issues and concerns police practitioners face in analyzing problems.
Abstract
This guidebook is based on the experiences of law enforcement agencies that participated in the COPS-funded Problem-Solving Partnership Program (PSP), particularly 16 law enforcement agencies that participated in an enhanced evaluation component of PSP. These agencies represented a wide range of problem-solving backgrounds and jurisdiction sizes. Each agency addressed one of six problem types in their community: drug dealing, robbery, auto theft, residential burglary, loitering, or domestic violence. These agencies received supplemental awards for resources to enhance the analysis and assessment components of their problem-solving projects. In addition, considerable problem-solving technical assistance was available to these sites from the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). Site visits were conducted and reports were reviewed in preparing this guidebook. The sections in this guidebook discuss approaches to analysis, strategies to collect information, and principles to consider in the analysis. There is emphasis placed on encouraging problem-solvers to be creative and innovative while maintaining structure in their approach. Although innovation is encouraged, analysis must be conducted in a systematic manner to address community problems effectively. The National Assessment of the COPS-funded PSP program showed that analysis was the weakest phase of the problem-solving process. This same study also showed that police had difficulty clearly defining problems, properly using data sources, conducting a comprehensive analysis, and implementing analysis-driven responses. There are two themes to this guide. First, that effective analysis needs to be structured and systematic. Second, that successful analysis begins with a comprehensive listing of what needs to be discovered about a problem. Establishing a sound foundation for the analysis with a strong set of questions makes the task of interpretation easier.