Research Paper Undergraduate 1,833 words

Problem-Oriented Policing to Reduce Crime in Nashville, TN

~10 min read 6 sections Law · Public Policy

Abstract

This paper proposes a field test of a problem-oriented policing crime reduction program for Nashville, Tennessee — a city ranked more dangerous than 97% of comparably sized American cities. The paper reviews the origins and structure of problem-oriented policing, including its SARA (Scan, Analysis, Response, Assessment) framework, originally developed by Herman Goldstein in the late 1970s. It evaluates the approach's appropriateness for Nashville's current crime environment, which has been exacerbated by pandemic-related unemployment and economic stress. Five guiding research questions are presented, along with a defined set of study subjects and an appendix applying the SARA model directly to Nashville's highest-crime neighborhoods.

Key Takeaways

Introduction: Nashville's Crime Problem: Nashville's crime rates and study rationale
Literature Review: Background and Overview: Nashville demographics and crime context
Description of Problem-Oriented Policing: Origins, SARA model, and core principles
Evaluating Problem-Oriented Policing for Nashville: Appropriateness and cost-effectiveness for Nashville
Research Questions: Five guiding questions for the proposed study
Subjects for Study and Conclusion: Key stakeholder groups for data collection

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What makes this paper effective

Grounds the policy proposal in concrete local data — Nashville's crime rankings, unemployment surge during COVID-19, and specific high-crime neighborhoods — giving the argument immediate relevance and specificity.
Balances theoretical grounding (Goldstein's original framework, the SARA model) with practical application via the Appendix A table, showing the reader both the "what" and the "how."
Organizes the literature review into clearly delineated subsections (background, description, evaluation), making a multifaceted topic easy to follow.

Key academic technique demonstrated

The paper demonstrates strong use of evidence synthesis: it draws on peer-reviewed criminology journals, government data sources, and think-tank reports to build a cumulative case for one specific intervention. Rather than cataloguing sources independently, the author weaves them together to answer a single applied question — whether problem-oriented policing is appropriate for Nashville — illustrating how literature reviews function as arguments, not mere summaries.

Structure breakdown

The paper follows a classic applied research proposal structure: problem statement → literature review (subdivided into background, description, and evaluation subsections) → research questions → subjects for study → references → appendix. This format is common in criminal justice and public policy proposals and mirrors the logic of the SARA model the paper itself advocates.

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Essay 1,833 words

Introduction: Nashville's Crime 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 significantly safer for its citizenry today compared to the alarmingly high crime rates of 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. Combating property and violent crime is a challenging enterprise under any circumstances, 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 was already a problem — this has been the case in 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 crime rates in Nashville today and in the future.

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 statistics 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 — through increased unemployment and mental health challenges that likely account for some of this crime — but it is also clear that Nashville's city leaders face 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 that 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.

Literature Review: Background and Overview

With a population of approximately 700,000 people, Nashville is Tennessee's state capital and the home of the world-famous entertainment venue the Grand Ole Opry. At present, however, Nashville is also a relatively dangerous place to live compared to national averages (Crime in Nashville, 2020). Like much of the rest of the country, property crime remains much more common in Nashville than violent crime (Gramlich, 2020), but one in every 90 residents is still likely to become a victim of violent crime each year, and another one in 24 are probable victims of property crimes (Nashville crime rates, 2021).

While the costs of property crimes are quantifiable, the costs associated with violent crimes transcend individual economic calculations and extend to harm 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 solutions that can completely eliminate violent crime (Giwa, 2018), a growing body of scholarship confirms that problem-oriented policing represents an evidence-based approach to combating this societal issue (Braga et al., 1999). In response to increasing violent crime in some American cities, a number of problem-oriented policing initiatives have been implemented 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 strategies and tactics focused on providing proactive solutions to chronic sources of violent crime, rather than relying on conventional policing techniques (Hinkle, Weisburd, & Telep, 2020). As originally conceptualized and currently applied in police departments across the country, 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 quantifiable factors 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). 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 equally essential to identify the specific sources of violent crimes and take directed action to eliminate them before they have the opportunity to manifest (Reisig, 2010). Importantly, problem-oriented policing strategies and tactics do not replace conventional law enforcement methods; rather, they 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 in real-world settings has consistently demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing crimes in general and violent crimes in particular (Hinkle et al., 2020). Moreover, differences in outcomes achieved using problem-oriented policing strategies and tactics have been attributed to differences in implementation and the specific types of violent crimes involved, rather than to any fundamental flaw in the approach itself (Hinkle et al., 2020).

3 Sections Hidden · 480 words

Evaluating Problem-Oriented Policing for Nashville230 words

During a period in American history where calls for defunding the police have become increasingly common, determining which criminal justice research and evaluation methods are most effective represents a timely and valuable enterprise — especially because taxpayer resources are inherently scarce (Jacobs & Kim, 2020). Any perception on the part of the general public that their…

Research Questions130 words

Based on the 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:…

Subjects for Study and Conclusion120 words

Because there are hundreds of thousands of stakeholders 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 research questions listed above. The subjects for the study proposed herein will include the following:…

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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/

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.neighborhoodscout.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

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

Appendix A: Application of Problem-Oriented Policing Strategies and Tactics to Nashville

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 Nashville neighborhoods that have historically high violent crime rates — including 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 problem-oriented policing interventions to specific high-crime areas. Research to learn as much as possible about each neighborhood is also essential at this stage.

Response: While conventional law enforcement analytical techniques draw on quantifiable metrics such as arrest type, time, and location, a problem-oriented policing intervention would also incorporate feedback from the community leaders and other stakeholders mentioned above to determine whether additional measures are required.

Assessment: Any problem-oriented policing intervention must be evaluated on a regular basis to determine how effective it has been in achieving its intended outcomes, by comparing current violent crime rates against established benchmarks.

Source: Adapted from The SARA Model (2020), Arizona State University Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at https://popcenter.asu.edu/content/sara-model-0

Key Concepts in This Paper

Problem-Oriented Policing SARA Model Violent Crime Property Crime Community Policing Crime Reduction Nashville Tennessee Herman Goldstein Law Enforcement Strategy Pandemic Unemployment