In the late 1970s, a law professor named Herman Goldstein looked at the way we policed our streets and basically realized we were doing it all wrong. He saw a system obsessed with "means" rather than "ends."
Cops were getting really good at answering the phone, driving fast to a scene, and making an arrest. But the next night? They’d be right back at the same house for the same fight.
Herman Goldstein problem oriented policing—or POP, if you’re into the acronyms—was his radical suggestion that maybe, just maybe, the police should try to figure out why they keep getting called to that same house in the first place.
It sounds like common sense today. At the time, it was revolutionary. It shifted the focus from "handling incidents" to "solving problems."
The "Means Over Ends" Trap
Goldstein argued that police departments had fallen into a "means over ends" syndrome. They were measuring success by how many arrests they made or how quickly they responded to a 911 call.
The problem? None of those things necessarily made a neighborhood safer in the long run. If you arrest a drug dealer on a corner but don't address why that corner is a magnet for dealing, a new dealer will be there by dinner time.
He wanted the "end" to be a reduction in the problem, not just a completed piece of paperwork.
What Exactly Is a "Problem"?
In Goldstein’s world, a problem isn't just a crime. It’s a cluster of similar incidents that are bothering the community. It could be:
- A specific park where seniors are afraid to walk because of aggressive panhandling.
- A string of convenience store robberies that always happen on Tuesday nights.
- Noise complaints at an apartment complex that tie up two cruisers every single weekend.
Basically, if it’s recurring and it’s making life worse for people, it’s a candidate for POP.
Enter the SARA Model
While Goldstein laid the philosophical groundwork, researchers like John Eck and William Spelman eventually turned it into a practical checklist. They called it SARA. Honestly, it’s the backbone of how most "smart" police work gets done today.
Scanning
This is where officers look for patterns. Instead of seeing five separate "disturbing the peace" calls, they realize they have a "rowdy bar at 2:00 AM" problem.
Analysis
This is the part everyone usually skips because it’s hard. It involves asking: Who is involved? Why here? Why now? Cops might talk to the bar owner, check lighting, or realize a nearby bus stop is where the friction starts.
Response
The fun part. But here's the kicker: the response doesn't have to be an arrest. Maybe it’s moving the bus stop. Maybe it’s getting the city to fix the streetlights. Maybe it’s a civil lawsuit against a negligent landlord.
Assessment
Did it actually work? Most departments hate this because it’s embarrassing if the answer is "no." But in the Herman Goldstein problem oriented policing framework, a "no" just means you go back to the Analysis phase.
Real World Wins (and Why It’s Not Just Theory)
In the 1980s, Newport News, Virginia, became a sort of "lab" for this. They had a massive problem with burglaries in a specific housing project. Standard patrols did nothing.
When they actually analyzed the situation, they found the physical condition of the buildings was so bad that burglars could basically walk through the walls. The "police" response? They didn't just arrest people; they worked with the city to relocate residents and renovate the buildings.
The burglaries plummeted.
More recently, look at Las Vegas. The Fremont Street area was becoming a nightmare of violent crime. Instead of just throwing more bodies at the problem, they launched a POP team in 2024. They used a specific "Order Out" ordinance to keep repeat offenders away and teamed up with casino stakeholders.
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Result? Violent crime dropped by 37% in a year. That’s not a fluke; that’s a strategy.
The Friction Points: Why Isn't Everyone Doing This?
If this works so well, why is reactive policing still the default? Honestly, it’s a culture clash.
Most cops joined the force to "catch bad guys," not to sit in meetings with the Department of Public Works talking about streetlights. POP is slow. It’s "unsexy." It requires a level of patience that doesn't always mesh with a high-stress environment.
Also, political leaders love "stats." It’s much easier for a mayor to say "We made 500 arrests this month" than to say "We’ve spent six months studying why people are loitering at the park, and we think we’ve found a solution involving better landscaping."
One sounds tough. The other sounds like a gardening project.
How We Get It Wrong
You’ll often hear people use "Problem-Oriented Policing" and "Community Policing" interchangeably. They aren't the same.
Community policing is about building relationships—shaking hands, kissing babies, and getting the public to trust the badge. That’s great. But you can have a great relationship with the community and still not solve any of their problems.
Herman Goldstein was very clear: you need the community to help you analyze the problem, but the ultimate goal is the surgical removal of the issue itself.
The Limitations
No system is perfect. One big risk is "displacement." If you solve a prostitution problem on 1st Street, do the workers just move to 2nd Street? Sometimes.
Good POP requires looking at the "why" so deeply that the problem doesn't just move—it disappears because the conditions that allowed it to exist are gone.
Actionable Steps for Implementation
If you’re a local leader or an officer looking to move toward this model, here is how you actually start:
- Kill the "Call-to-Call" Mentality: Stop rewarding officers solely for their "cleared" call volume. Give them dedicated "uncommitted time" to actually look at data.
- Identify Your "Hot Solvers": Find the officers who are naturally curious. They usually already know where the problems are; they just need the permission and resources to fix them.
- Audit the Data, Not the Narrative: Look for the top 5 addresses or locations that generate the most calls. That is your starting list.
- Partner Outside the Precinct: You can't fix a broken window or a dark alley with a pair of handcuffs. Build a direct line to the city’s zoning and maintenance departments.
- Measure the "Nothing": Success in POP is when the phone doesn't ring. You have to be okay with measuring the absence of crime, which takes a different kind of data tracking (Pre- and Post-intervention analysis).
Herman Goldstein passed away in 2020, but his work is arguably more relevant now than it was in 1979. In an era where everyone is demanding "better" policing, maybe the answer isn't a new piece of technology or more gear. Maybe it's just finishing the job we started forty years ago: actually solving the problems that keep us awake at night.