Factors that Facilitate and Hinder Implementation of a Problem Oriented Policing Intervention in Crime Hot Spots: Suggestions to Improve Implementation Based on a Field Experiment

Abstract

The problem-oriented policing (POP) and hot spots literatures have more recently noted the need for implementation studies to understand what and how implementation could be improved to ensure the greatest impact of these policing approaches. However, there are limited empirical studies on implementation of POP and/or hot spots policing, and there appears to be limited empirical evidence of factors that facilitate or hinder implementation of such policing approaches. Therefore, this study is timely for contributing to the understanding of implementation drivers that help ensure proper installment of policing approaches for desired impact, sustainability, and spread. Our analysis of qualitative data resulted in an empirically derived model that identifies multiple factors within five levels: society, system, community, organization and individual. Each level contains a set of factors that either facilitated or hindered implementation of the interventions that we tested. These factors include but are not limited to society’s perceptions of police officers (police legitimacy), justice systems’ diversion policies, community support of police agencies, leadership/supervisor support of POP and hot spots policing, organizational resources, and individual characteristics of police officers. Our model describes that these factors interact to ultimately influence patrol officers’ motivation to implement POP in crime hot spots, and that their motivation leads to varying degrees of implementation. As a result of this study, we offer implementation science-informed practical actions for police agencies to achieve stronger implementation of nontraditional policing practices. These actions can be tested to understand if they have significant and positive impact on crime and other outcomes.