Institutionalizing problem‐oriented policing: An evaluation of the EMUN reform in Israel

• Author: Tomer Carmel,Yael Litmanovitz,Shani Tshuva,Badi Hasisi,David Weisburd
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12516
• Published date: 01 August 2020
• Date: 01 August 2020

DOI: ./- .

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH IN POLICE POLICY AND PRACTICE

Institutionalizing problem-oriented policing:

An evaluation of the EMUN reform in Israel

David Weisburd1,2Badi Hasisi2Yael Litmanovitz2

Tomer Carmel3Shani Tshuva2

George Mason University, Hebrew

University

Hebrew University

University of Haifa

Correspondence

DavidWeisburd, Department of Crimi-

nology,Law and Society,George Mason

University, University Drive, MS

D,Fairfax, VA .

Email:dweisbur@gmu.edu

Theauthors would like to thank the Plan-

ningand Organization Division of the

IsraelPolice, in particular Lilach Laufman-

Gavrifor her leadership, and the staff

membersof the Research, Measurement

&Evaluation and GIS subunits for their

ongoingsupport and input that enabled

thisresearch. We also thank the comman-

dersand off icers interviewedas part of the

studyfor their time and effort. We would

liketo acknowledge Liz Groff and David

Wilsonfor their methodology consulta-

tionsand advice. We are also grateful to the

specialissue editors, Stephen Mastrofski,

andthe anonymous reviewers for their

insightfulfeedback on earlier versions of

thisarticle.

Fundinginformation

Ministryof Public Security Israel

Research Summary: In  Herman Goldstein pro-

posed a radical reform—problem-oriented policing

(POP)—which has had tremendous impact on schol-

ars and practitioners. Even though his paper and sub-

sequent work led to a large body of literature on how

to carry out problem-oriented policing tactics, schol-

ars have often ignored the question of how POP can

be institutionalized in police agencies. In this arti-

cle, we evaluate a reform in Israel—EMUN— that

attempted to institutionalize problem-oriented policing

on a national scale. Focusing on propertycrime, we com-

pare three treatment stations (with high, moderate, and

low crime) with control stations chosen through a sys-

tematic matching procedure. Wefind that there are large

and significant reductions in the targeted areas (termed

“polygons”) for high- and moderate-property- crime sta-

tions as compared with the control stations. We also do

not find evidence of displacement but instead evidence

of significant diffusions of crime control benefits. Impor-

tantly,property crime declines occurred in these stations

overall. Significant benefits were not found for the low-

crime treatment station. Weattribute this to the low base

rate of crimes and low resource allocation in this station.

Policy Implications: These findings suggest that the

EMUN reform provides a potential model for institu-

tionalizing problem-oriented policing as an organiza-

tional reform. EMUN attempted to support and rein-

force each of the main steps of the problem-oriented

Criminology & Public Policy. ;:–. ©  American Society of Criminology 941wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp

942 WEISBURD  .

policing model. It also developed sophisticated com-

puter tools to aid in this process that not only supported

problem-solving efforts but also allowed for wide-scale

supervision of each stage of the POP model.

KEYWORDS

evidence-based policing, organizational reform, policing,

problem-oriented policing, strategic problem solving

In  Herman Goldstein proposed a new approach to policing that would refocus the police on

the goal of solving problems and would expand the toolbox of policing so that innovative problem

solving was a key part of the policing lexicon—whatis widely termed “problem-oriented policing”

(POP) today. His proposedreform has become one of the most important innovations in policing

over the last  years and has been widely adopted by police agencies in the United States and

around the world (Weisburd & Majmundar, ). Reviews of the effectiveness of problem solv-

ing as an approach suggest meaningful crime prevention benefits (Hinkle et al., ; Weisburd&

Majmundar,; Weisburd, Telep,Hinkle, & Eck, ). But at the same time, there is widespread

agreement by scholars that Goldstein’sorganizational vision of problem-oriented policing has sel-

dom been realized in practice (Boba & Crank, ; Leigh, Read, & Tilley,; Maguire, Uchida,

& Hassell, ; Sollund, ; Tilley & Scott, ).

Problem-oriented policing in the field is often a “one-off” response to specific problems (Maze-

rolle, Rombouts, & McBroom, ;Scott&Kirbey,; Tilly & Scott, ) with little strategic

coordination in the larger context of police agencies. Some scholars describe problem-oriented

policing, even in programs that seem to generate meaningful crime prevention benefits, as a

form of “shallow problem solving” seldom going much beyond traditional policing tactics (Braga

&Weisburd, ; see also Boba & Crank, ; Bullock & Tilley, ). Despite Goldstein’s origi-

nal call for organizational reform, problem-oriented policing in practice has generally been imple-

mented at the “front-line service delivery” level and has seldom been institutionalized in the

broader organizational context of policing (Cordner & Biebel, ; Leigh et al., ;Maguire

et al., ; Tilley & Scott, ). More generally,the lack of institutionalization of evidence-based

reforms has been a major barrier to their successful diffusion in policing (Lum & Koper, ).

In this article, we focus on a recent effort, called “EMUN,” in the Israel National Police (INP),

to institutionalize problem-oriented policing across the entire national network of police stations.

EMUN follows a small group of other efforts by innovative police executives to implement prob-

lem solving on a large scale (e.g., see Mazerolle et al., ; Mazerolle, McBroom, & Rombouts,

;Scott&Kirby,; Weisburd et al., ). As we illustrate below, however, EMUN insti-

tutionalized its efforts through a coordinated system of reforms, backed by an innovative data

platform, meant to support and reinforce the key elements of the POP model. We detail a quasi-

experimental evaluation of the EMUN reform’s impacts on property crime that illustrates the

potential effectiveness of the program. Our findings suggest that the EMUN system created an

organizational climate of evidence-based problem solving in which not only commanders but

also ordinary police were exposed directly to the message of the reform and contributed to the

process. In our discussion, we consider the implications of our findings for policing more broadly,

as well as the limitations of the present study.