Testing the Effects of a Problem-Solving Policing Strategy on Crime Outcomes: The Promise of an Integrated Approach

• Author: Brenda J. Bond-Fortier,Elias S. Nader
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10986111211060025
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Police Quarterly

2023, Vol. 26(1) 54–84

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10986111211060025

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Testing the Effects of a

Problem-Solving Policing

Strategy on Crime

Outcomes: The Promise of an

Integrated Approach

Brenda J. Bond-Fortier

1

and Elias S. Nader

2,3



Abstract

Police problem-solving is one of the most recognized innovations of recent decades,

and evidence provides practitioners with hope in their challenges to affect crime. Yet,

practitioners need more than hope as they struggle to implement and institutionalize

this innovation. This paper shares the results of an integrated problem-solving in-

tervention situated within a comprehensive approach. A Case of Place intervention

served as an instrument of problem-solving, which became institutionalized through

analytical and Compstat changes. The intervention guided police and crime analysts

through problem-solving processes, ensuring attention to each problem-solving step.

Using interrupted time-series, post-intervention results revealed a signif‌icant reduction

in aggravated assaults, motor vehicle breaks, and robberies, as compared to pre-

intervention patterns. Additionally, organizational shifts moved the department to-

wards the goal of holistic problem-solving. This study reveals positive results from the

Case of Place problem-solving instrument and may offer a path to address the analytical

and institutionalization shortcomings of problem-solving.

1

Institute for Public Service, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, MA, USA

2

Department of Sociology, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

3

School of Criminal Justice, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA

Corresponding Author:

Brenda J. Bond-Fortier, Institute for Public Service, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, 120

Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108, USA.

Email: bbond@suffolk.edu

Keywords

problem-solving, police, Compstat, crime analysis, case of place

Introduction

Police agencies have adopted problem-solving as one of their crime and disorder

prevention and reduction strategies (e.g., Eck & Spelman, 1987;Skogan et al., 1999).

Problem-solving is grounded in problem-oriented policing (POP) and encourages a

comprehensive examination of and response to conditions that facilitate crime and

disorder (Goldstein, 1979). Problem-solving can be understood as a micro-level strategy

through which POP comes to life via the use of “on-the-ground”actions of identifying

and understanding crime and disorderchallenges and then applying themost appropriate

and effective responses available (e.g.,Eck & Spelman, 1987;Skogan et al., 1999;Tele p

& Weisburd, 2012). The process calls for response assessment to gauge impact, which

then informs future problem-solving. The evidence that problem-solving can impact

myriad crime and disorder in and around crime hot spots, is promising asstudies reveal

that problem-solving can impact fear of crime (Cordner, 1986), violence in hot spots

(Braga, et al., 1999), disorder in parks (Baker & Wolfer, 2003), and property crime

(Weisburd et al., 2020). Armedwith this evidence, practitionersreport adopting problem-

solving as an on-the-ground policing tool (Reaves, 2015).

Despite the evolving evidence on the potential of problem-solving, research reveals

at least two areas in which problem-solving implementation remains a challenge. First,

at the micro or technical level, research shows that some problem-solving components

are shallowly implemented. Specif‌ically, scanning and analysis are limited and

somewhat superf‌icial, and assessment is often shortchanged (Braga & Bond, 2008;

Rosenbaum, 2006;Weisburd & Majmundar, 2017). A second area sits at the orga-

nizational or macro-level, and concerns the broader institutionalization of problem-

solving into police operations and management (Bond & Nader, 2018;Weisburd, et al.,

2020). These studies show that integration of problem-solving is stymied by internal

conf‌licts regarding agency priorities and culture (Bond & Nader, 2018). Likewise,

integration of problem-solving into departmental performance management systems

(e.g., Compstat) remains a challenge (Lum & Koper, 2017).

One way to address these shortcomings is to explore the interdependence between

the technical aspects of problem-solving and the organizational features needed to

institutionally sustain problem-solving. Indeed, if police departments and communities

are to realize problem-solving benef‌its, weaknesses in implementation and in-

stitutionalization must be overcome. This study addresses this multi-level gap by

examining a micro-level problem-solving intervention designed to address these

weaknesses, f‌irst by testing the value of the novel Case of Place instrument to problem-

solving, and then examining the integration of problem-solving into the Compstat (i.e.,

performance management) system at a macro-level.

Bond-Fortier and Nader 55