Two kinds of problem-solving

Abstract

AbstractMany of problem-oriented policing’s most thoughtful students have worried that it makes unrealistic demands on officers, and some of them have suggested that police might need to settle for a less ambitious version of Goldstein’s original model. This paper argues that these worries and suggestions rest on a faulty interpretation of that model’s logic. The most significant feature of problem-oriented policing lies not in the identification and resolution of community problems but in the identification and reform of defective organizational routines. ‘Problems’ are signals that organizational practices are failing, and ‘problem-solving’ is the work of analyzing how they can be reformed. This interpretation has implications for the kind of knowledge problem-solving should rely on and the organizational structure in which it should be embedded.