Problem-Oriented Policing Crime Reduction Program in the City of Nashville, Tennessee

Implementing a Problem-Oriented Policing Crime Reduction Program in the City of Nashville, Tennessee
Statement of the Problem
Law enforcement agencies have made substantial progress in reducing violent crime and property crime rates in many municipalities across the country, and the United States can be regarded as being significantly safer for its citizenry today compared to the alarmingly high crime rates in the 1990s (Gramlich, 2020). Nevertheless, pockets of high crime rates remain firmly in place in some American cities despite ongoing efforts by law enforcement agencies to address these trends. As the research that follows will show, combating property and violent crime is a challenging enterprise at any time, but the devastating effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have adversely affected employment levels in many cities and a growing number of Americans are facing eviction and hunger. It is not surprising, then, that crime rates remain intractable in cities where unemployment rates were already a problem, and this has been the case with Nashville, Tennessee where unemployment skyrocketed from just under 5% to 15% during the height of the pandemic (Unemployment rate in Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, 2021). The overarching purpose of the study proposed herein is to identify optimal strategies for implementing a problem-oriented policing intervention to help reduce the crime rates in Nashville today and in the future based on the rationale that is presented below.
Today, the City of Nashville, Tennessee is more dangerous to live in than 97% of all American cities of comparable size (Nashville crime rates, 2021) and recent violent and property crime rates indicate that the problem is worsening, especially with respect to property crimes. Certainly, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected virtually every American community, including increased unemployment levels and mental health issues that likely account for some of these crimes, but it is also clear that Nashville city leaders have yet another serious problem on their hands. One evidence-based law enforcement strategy that can help Nashville reduce its crime rates is problem-oriented policing. The purpose of this study is to propose a field test of a problem-oriented policing crime reduction program for Nashville which can be used to evaluate its appropriateness for city-wide implementation. To this end, a systematic review of the relevant literature is followed by the study’s guiding research questions and the targeted subjects for study in the sections below.
Literature Review
Background and overview
With a population of about 700,000 people, Nashville is Tennessee’s state capital and the home of the world-famous entertainment venue the Grand Ole Opry. At present, though, Nashville, is also a relatively dangerous place to live compared to national averages (Crime in Nashville, 2020). As shown in Figure 1 below and like much of the rest of the country, property crime remains much more common in Nashville compared to violent crime (Gramlich, 2020), but one in 90 residents are still likely to become to victim of violent crime each year and another one in 24 are probable victims of property crimes (Nashville crime rates, 2021).

Figure 1. Daily crime in Nashville (per 100,000 people)
Source: https://www.areavibes.com/nashville-tn/crime
While the costs of property crimes are quantifiable, the costs that are associated with violent crimes transcend the individual economic calculus and extend to include harm to entire neighborhoods and communities. In this regard, the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (2020) emphasizes that, “Exposure to violence in a community can be experienced at various levels, including victimization, directly witnessing acts of violence, or hearing about events from other community members” (Crime and violence, 2020, para. 3).
Description of problem-oriented policing
Although there are no magic law enforcement bullets available to that can completely eliminate violent crime (Giwa, 2018), a growing body of scholarship confirms that problem-oriented policing represents an evidence-based approach to combatting this societal issue (Braga et al., 1999. In response to an increasing violent crime problem in some American cities, there have been a number of implementations of problem-oriented policing initiatives over the past 40 years (Giwa, 2018). Originally developed by Herman Goldstein in the late 1970s, problem?oriented policing is a framework in which law enforcement authorities apply community-based strategic and tactics that are focused on providing proactive solutions to chronic sources of violent crime rather than using conventional policing techniques (Hinkle, Weisburd & Telep, 2020). As originally conceptualized and applied at in police departments across the country at present, the overarching objective of problem-oriented policing is to concentrate available law enforcement resources on improving community safety and reducing violent crime rather than focusing strictly on the quantifiable factors that are associated with violent crime such as average response time to crime scenes and the number and types of arrests made during a set period of time (Reisig, 2010).
Nonetheless, problem-oriented policing strategies and tactics do draw on many of the same theoretical foundations as conventional law enforcement methods (Reisig, 2010). Further, it is also critically important to maintain timely and accurate statistical analyses of crime rates in order to identify salient trends; however, proponents of problem-oriented policing maintain that it is also essential to identify the specific sources of violent crimes and take directed actions to eliminate them before they have the opportunity to actually manifest into violent crime (Reisig, 2010). In addition, it is important to note that problem-oriented policing strategies and tactics do not replace conventional law enforcement methods but rather supplement and enhance them in ways that promote community safety in meaningful ways (Hinkle et al., 2020).
Although every law enforcement scenario differs, problem-oriented policing strategies and tactics generally revolve around the use of the scan, analysis, response and assessment (SARA) model (Hinkle et al., 2020). The application of the SARA approach to problem-oriented policing in real-world settings has consistently demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing crimes in general and violent crimes in particular (Hinkle et al., 2020). Moreover, the differences in the outcomes achieved using problem-oriented policing strategics and tactics have been attributed to differences in the implementation of these initiatives and the specific types of violent crimes that are involved rather than the fundamental tenets of the approach itself (Hinkle et al., 2020).
Evaluation of the appropriateness of problem-oriented policing for Nashville
During a period in American history where misguided calls for defunding the police have become commonplace, determining which criminal justice research and evaluation methods are most effective represents a timely and valuable enterprise, especially because taxpayer resources are by definition scarce (Jacobs & Kim, 2020). Therefore, any perception on the part of the general public that their monies are being squandered on ineffective or obsolete law enforcement methods is a significant and justifiable source of concern for police leaders (Boyce, 2019). In addition to conventional law enforcement practices, the problem-oriented policing model also provides useful evaluations methods that can help identify opportunities for community-based interventions that are specifically focused on violent crime (Schnobrich-Davis & Block, 2020). Furthermore, in a larger sense, problem-oriented policing evaluation methods are also highly congruent with other recent trends in criminology (Wooditch, 2021).
Yet another issue that must be considered is that by augmenting rather than completely replacing conventional law enforcement evaluation methods, problem-oriented policing evaluation methods also provide criminal justice researchers with “more bang for the buck” in terms of the robustness of their findings, an outcome that is consistent with the need to use taxpayer resources to their maximum effectiveness (Wilkes et al., 2021). In sum, addressing the violent crime problem in Nashville today demands a comprehensive, evidence-based approach that can “hit the ground running” in terms of its proven efficacy in identify its community-based antecedents and developing tailored interventions in response which problem-oriented policing can provide law enforcement agencies of all sizes and types. The SARA model used by the problem-oriented policing approach is applied to Nashville’s current situation at Appendix A.
Research Questions
Based on the foregoing violent and property crime rate statistics for Nashville and the demonstrated appropriateness of the problem-oriented policing approach for the city’s law enforcement authorities, the study will be guided by the following research questions:
Q1: What neighborhoods in Nashville are currently experienced the highest violent crime rates?
Q2: What are the current policing strategies in place in Nashville?
Q3: Are the current policing strategies used in Nashville viewed positively or negatively by police officers on the street?
Q4: What are the best lessons learned from previous applications of the problem-oriented policing approach in other American cities of comparable size to Nashville (i.e., populations of between 500,000 to 1 million)?
Q5: What actions do local business leaders, civic groups and organizations believe need to be taken to address the crime problem in Nashville.
Subjects for Study
Because there are hundreds of thousands of stakeholders that are directly involved in the envisioned study, it will be essential to canvass a representative sample of the local population in Nashville that can help develop timely and informed answers to the above-listed research questions. Therefore, the subjects for the study proposed herein will include the following:
· Police patrol officers (e.g., “street cops”)
· District police commanders;
· Local business owners;
· Representatives of civic groups and organizations;
· Victims of violent crime;
· Adjudicated violent criminals;
· Other stakeholders to be determined.
References
Boyce, A. (2019). A re-imagining of evaluation as social justice: A discussion of the education justice program. Critical Education, 10, 37-42.
Braga, A. A. (2008). Problem-oriented policing and crime prevention. Munsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
Braga, A. A., Weisburd, D. L. & Waring, E. J. (1999). Problem-oriented policing in violent crime places: A randomized controlled experiment. Criminology, 37(3), 541-555.
Crime in Nashville. (2020). https://www.areavibes.com/nashville-tn/crime/#:~:text=In%20Nashville%2C%20TN%20you%20have,theft%20and%20motor%20vehicle%20theft.
Crime and violence. (2020). U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/.
Giwa, S. (2018). Community policing in racialized communities: A potential role for police social work, Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 1-17.
Gramlich, J. (2020, November 20). What the data says (and doesn’t say) about crime in the United States. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/.
Hinkle, J. C., Weisburd, D. & Telep, C. W. (2020, June 15). Problem?oriented policing for reducing crime and disorder: An updated systematic review and meta?analysis. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 16(2), 37-44.
Jacobs, L. A., Kim, M. E. & Whitfield, D. L. (2020). Defund the police: Moving towards an anti-carceral social work. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 32(1), 19-22.
Nashville crime rates. (2021). Neighborhood Scout. Retrieved from https://www.neighborhood scout.com/tn/nashville/crime,
Reisig, M. D. (2010). Community and problem-oriented policing. Crime and Justice, 39, 1-18.
Schnobrich-Davis, J. & Block, S. (2020, September). Analysis of Herman Goldstein problem-oriented policing awards from 1993-2017. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 14(3), 616–629.
Unemployment rate in Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro. (2021). Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Research. Retrieved from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ NASH947URN.
Wilkes, N., Anderson, V. R. & Johnson, C. L. (2021). Mixed methods research in criminology and criminal justice: a systematic review. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(3), 41-50.
Wooditch, A. (2021). The potential of spatiotemporal methods to improve criminal justice policy and program evaluation. Mason Archival Repository Service. Retrieved from http://jbox. gmu.edu/xmlui/handle/1920/10983.
Appendix A
Application of the problem-oriented policing strategic and tactics to Nashville
SARA component
Description of application
Scan
Increased police patrols of high-crime areas are most effective at night, while community-based interventions that include participation by community leaders are most effective during the daytime (Braga, 2008). Therefore, police departments should collaborate with community leaders in those neighborhoods in Nashville that have historically high violent crime rates (i.e., West Meade, Salemtown, Heron Walk, Glencliff and Bordeaux) to enhance relations and improve the ability of police to proactively prevent violent crimes rather than respond to them after the fact.
Analysis
This step involves narrowing the focus of the problem-oriented policing interventions to specific high-crime areas. In addition, research to learn as much as possible about the neighborhood is also essential at this stage.
Response
While conventional law enforcement analytical techniques that draw on quantifiable metrics such as arrest type, time and location, a problem-oriented policing intervention would also include feedback from the above-mentioned community leaders and other stakeholders to determine if additional measures are required.
Assessment
Finally, any problem-oriented policing intervention must be evaluated on a regular basis to determine how effective it was in achieving its intended outcomes by comparing benchmarked violent crimes rates.
Source: Adapted from The Sara Model (2020), Arizona State University Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at https://popcenter.asu.edu/content/sara-model-0