60 Steps

Much of what we know about problems today was unknown 20 years ago. This accumulation of knowledge is largely due to the sharing of knowledge by police practitioners and researchers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other countries. Steps 54 to 57 described how to communicate to decision-makers in your police force and in your community.

Finding a suitable response can be a troublesome process. You may be repeatedly disappointed when promising interventions are vetoed because of expense or difficulty, or because of lack of cooperation. But there is more than one way to solve a problem. So, eventually your team will agree on a response that meets some basic requirements:

The first inclination of police, even when they have been involved in a detailed analysis of a problem, is to try to solve it by beefing up enforcement. You should expect this and not oppose it, even if the impact is usually short-lived. But from the beginning you should be helping your police colleagues find more permanent solutions.

Crime prevention often involves predictions. Will offenders associated with the problem continue to offend as they have done in the past? Will recent victims become victims again in the near future? Will hot spot places become cold spots, or will they stay hot? Though past behavior may be our best predictor of future behavior, it is not a perfect predictor.