Reconciling problem-oriented policing and evidence-based policing

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between evidence-based policing (EBP) and problem-oriented policing (POP), two approaches that are similar and distinct in detail as between them, but also both of them distinct in kind from most other approaches. It suggests that 'reconcile' can variously mean to cause to become amicable, to settle a dispute, to make compatible or consistent, or to cause to be resigned to something not desired. The chapter focuses on the theoretical constructs for Herman Goldstein's POP and Lawrence Sherman's EBP and the ideal application of their models that they envision and articulate, respectively. The core objective of POP is to improve the police institution by improving its capacity to achieve its policing objectives effectively and fairly. The core objective of EBP, by contrast, is to build a robust and reliable body of research-based evidence on which police can rely in deciding how to police.