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1999 2: 125Police QuarterlyMichael E. Buerger, Anthony J. Petrosino and Carolyn Petrosino

Extending the Police Role: Implications of Police Mediation as a Problem-Solving Tool  

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PO LICE QUAR TERLY (Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1999)Buerger et al. / EX TENDING THE PO LICE ROLE

EXTENDING THE POLICE ROLE:IM PLI CA TIONS OF PO LICE ME DI A TION

AS A PROB LEM-SOLVING TOOL

MI CHAEL E. BUERGERNorth east ern Uni ver sity

AN THONY J. PETROSINOAmer i can Acad emy of Arts and Sciences

CAR O LYN PETROSINOBridgewater State College

This arti cle dis cusses ram i fi ca tions of role shifts that occur when police offi -cers with tra di tional law enforce ment expec ta tions are placed in com mu nitypolic ing assign ments. Shifting from a con trol per spec tive to a part ner shiprole often requires offi cers to aban don con fron ta tion, com mand, and coer -cion in favor of par tic i pa tion, pro mo tion, and per sua sion. Types of policemedi a tion aris ing in com mu nity polic ing are dis cussed rel a tive to socialdis tance and legal obli ga tions across a spec trum of dis putes: domes tics,land lord-ten ant, acquain tance/neigh bor, fric tions between neigh bor hoodsand attrac tive nui sances, and between place guard ians and reg u lat ing bod -ies. The New York City Com mu nity Patrol Offi cer Pro gram (CPOP) and theMin ne ap o lis Repeat Call Address Policing (RECAP) exper i ment pro videexam ples. Poten tial prob lems include burn out, tun nel vision, per son al iza -tion, overidentification, overcommitment, and unan tic i pated con se quences.

Police admin is tra tors seek ing to max i mize their agen cies’ effec tive nesshave adopted prob lem solv ing as one means to strengthen the com mu nity’sabil ity to han dle inci vil i ties with out con stantly appeal ing for police assis -tance. Whether as a stand-alone pro ject or as part of a com mu nity polic ingini tia tive, police use prob lem-solv ing tech niques to quell under ly ing prob -lems that pro duce dis or ders. Prob lem solv ing changes the nature of the offi -cer’s rela tion ship with the dis pu tants, how ever, and cre ates new demandsfor which tra di tional police train ing does not pre pare offi cers.

PO LICE QUAR TERLY Vol. 2 No. 2, June 1999 125–149© 2000 Sage Pub li ca tions, Inc.

The move to com mu nity polic ing is well doc u mented else where (e.g.,Greene & Mastrofski, 1988; Rosenbaum, 1994; Skolnick & Bayley, 1986;Spar row, Moore, & Ken nedy, 1990; Trojanowicz & Bucqueroux, 1990).The advan tages to the com mu nity of the com mu nity polic ing part ner shipare thought to be greater respon sive ness of police agen cies to cit i zen-defined prob lems, increased police atten tion to order main te nance, and theresult ing reduced pub lic per cep tion of and fear of crime (Cordner, 1985;McElroy, Cosgrove, & Sadd, 1990; Spelman & Eck, 1987; Trojanowicz,Pol lard, Colgan, & Harden, 1986). The advan tages to the police are pro -moted as decen tral ized deci sion mak ing that improves agency per for -mance, greater job sat is fac tion for offi cers, improved cit i zen sat is fac tionwith the police, and a reduc tion in the police work load.

The com mon denom i na tor of the wide vari ety of com mu nity polic ingdeploy ments is an attempt to break down the mutual ano nym ity of policeand cit i zen that tra di tional polic ing fos ters and to encour age pos i tive inter -ac tions in the hopes of dis pel ling the dam ag ing ste reo types held on bothsides. Ulti mately, the crit i cal ele ment is the engage ment of the offi cers withthe com mu nity (the per sonal con tact and respect), not the man ner ofdeploy ment. It is engage ment and the result ing knowl edge and increasedper sonal author ity of the offi cer that facil i tate effec tive police inter ven tionin long-stand ing dis putes.

Com mu nity po lic ing de ploy ments ex tend the day-to-day ac tiv i ties, in -ter ac tions, and ex pec ta tions of of fi cers well be yond what has been the normof tra di tional po lic ing. Of fi cers be come in volved in ar eas of life pre vi ouslyig nored by the po lice and for which their train ing and ex pe ri ence have notpre pared them. For years, of fi cers have known in stinc tively that the rel a tivean o nym ity of pa trol work, cou pled with “just the facts, Ma’am” de tach ment and (when nec es sary) per sonal brusque ness and even fe roc ity, served to in -su late them from some of the un de sir able as pects of their jobs. Im por tantamong those to-be-avoided con di tions are as fol lows:

• loss of an o nym ity, which many of fi cers see as a threat to their fam i lies;• the po ten tial for be ing un will ingly em broiled in chronic un re solv able dis putes, ei ther

as me di a tor or as the imag ined cham pion of one side or an other;• fre quent in ter ac tion with the lonely and in ca pa ble souls who at tach them selves to

any one who will lis ten (or can not get away) and are es pe cially drawn to fig ures ofau thor ity;

• be ing con fronted with ques tions they are un pre pared to an swer (par tic u larly about ac -cu sa tions of po lice er ror or wrong do ing); and

126 PO LICE QUAR TERLY (Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1999)

• hav ing to han dle sit u a tions for which they are un pre pared be cause the mat ters lie out -side the nar row scope of ex ist ing po lice train ing.

The na ture of the new as sign ments leave of fi cers more at risk for all of theseneg a tive pos si bil i ties.

Police accus tomed to the tra di tional model have relied on the pre cepts ofcon trol: con front, com mand, and coerce. Estab lishing and main tain ing apres ence, an over whelm ing author ity, is cen tral to the tra di tional policemind-set and train ing. The new prob lem- and com mu nity-ori ented mod elsnei ther elim i nate nor down play the impor tance of con trol in cer tain sit u a -tions (e.g., Goldstein, 1977, 1990), but they insert offi cers into sit u a tions inwhich con trol is at best irrel e vant and at worst coun ter pro duc tive. Com mu -nity polic ing and the Scanning, Anal y sis, Response, and Assess ment(SARA) prob lem-solv ing model place the police in the very dif fer ent worldof part ner ship, which requires them to par tic i pate, pro mote, and per suade.In a con trol model, the police offi cer is the cen tral fig ure in the event; in apart ner ship model, the police are but one of many inter ested stake holders.

Con trol sit u a tions allow offi cers to enter and inter vene in ongo ing eventsor impose their pres ence for the pur pose of inves ti ga tion, with either gen eral or spe cific author ity (Reiss, 1971). The police goal is the ces sa tion of con -duct which “ought-not-to-be-hap pen ing-and-about-which-some thing-ought-to-be-done-NOW!” (Bittner, 1985, p. 30), and their author ity deriveseither from a spe cific com plaint or from the gen eral police power to pre -serve the peace.

In part ner ship sit u a tions, the imme di acy of the con trol sit u a tions maynot exist. Though past inci dents cer tainly inform many neigh bor hood con -cerns, they pro vide no imme di ate man date for police inter ven tion. Oftencit i zens’ con cerns are with con di tions out side the scope of crim i nal law,such as trash col lec tion, main te nance of parks and vacant lots, and con di -tions of ten ancy and the like, for which there is no for mal police man date.The task for the police offi cer is to per suade some one to do some thing theyhave not been doing and have lit tle or no incen tive to do. Although theremay be aggrieved or con cerned par ties, no one indi vid ual has a com pel linginter est. The police author ity lies in mar shal ing the col lec tive will, cre at inga moral man date in the local area to achieve a locally desir able result.

Although the work to be accom plished often lies out side the policeauthor ity, the police serve as the cat a lyst to bring inter ested par ties togetherand cre ate a forum for action. In the pro cess, police offi cers are put in a posi -tion of hav ing to artic u late plau si ble ratio nales, medi ate between

Buerger et al. / EX TENDING THE PO LICE ROLE 127

con flict ing inter ests (in a venue where the offi cers can not over whelm thoseinter ests by assert ing their own), field and respond to “yeah, but . . . ” objec -tions and requests for exemp tion, keep tem pers under con trol with outresort ing to threat of arrest, keep dis cus sion focused on out comes ratherthan tan gen tial issues, and occa sion ally take the heat for not hav ing donemore on their own ini tia tive.

The prob lem applies equally to slumlords and to rep u ta ble cit i zenswhose lives are already com mit ted to other pur suits. The police have no fun -da men tal author ity to com pel par tic i pa tion, and to accom plish their goal,the police must apply tech niques for which com mand-and-con trol train ingdoes not pre pare them. Although some offi cers have an indi vid ual knack forcoali tion build ing, jaw bon ing, arm twist ing, or just plain bedaz zling peo pleinto tak ing on unde sir able duties, the skill rests far more in the indi vid u alsthan in any thing the occu pa tion does to pre pare them.

Although police admin is tra tors tend to speak of these new hori zons asthough they were job enhance ment (based on the pos i tive expe ri ences of afew offi cers who were self-selected for the work), the words exten sion andenhance ment are not syn onyms. Job enhance ment occurs only if the offi -cers can find sat is fac tion in accom plish ment, but the nature, expec ta tions,and pos si bil i ties of police involve ment in long-term dis putes are still basi -cally unknown ter ri tory. Suc cess is nei ther auto matic nor unequiv o cal, andrais ing unre al is tic expec ta tions by oversell ing pos si ble results can bedeadly to new pro grams that feed on vol un teer efforts. The suc cess of thepolice endeav ors and the affir ma tion that cre ates job enhance ment dependheavily on the abil ity of the police to medi ate between par ties either inactive dis pute or with con flict ing inter ests.

PO LICE ME DI A TION

Web ster’s def i ni tion of medi a tion is “inter ven tion or friendly inter ces -sion, usu ally by con sent or invi ta tion, for set tling dif fer ences between per -sons, nations, etc.” (Web ster, 1979, p. 1117). True medi a tion is a third-partyinter ven tion between two more or less empow ered par ties who areembroiled in a dis pute they have been unable to resolve them selves. Eachhas some power over the other’s sit u a tion, even if that power man i fests itself in neg a tive or destruc tive ways; each can do some thing to facil i tate res o lu -tion of the sit u a tion.

In most cases, a medi a tor has no for mal power but pos sesses a degree ofmoral author ity to which each side will defer. The medi a tor’s job is to lis ten

128 PO LICE QUAR TERLY (Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1999)

to both sides (some times hear ing the undertext rather than the sur facewords), rec og nize and develop areas of com mon inter est, and move the par -ties toward a com pro mise sit u a tion that each party can live with, the clas sicwin-win sit u a tion.

Police medi a tion, as we use the term, rep re sents a broader range of activ i -ties, not all of which are benign. It includes brokering and peti tion -ing—essen tially act ing as an advo cate on behalf of those who have nopower—as well as arbi tra tion, a con di tion in which the third party does have power and can influ ence if not com pel the choices avail able to the prin ci -pals. Police medi a tion is dis tin guished from for mal medi a tion by the neces -sity of work ing in sit u a tions where con sent and invi ta tion to medi ate havenot been extended. The police medi ate and per suade in inci dents as well, but the medi at ing role is accepted as an alter na tive to more coer cive mea sures.The shadow of coer cion tinges the com mon ground reached in short-termmedi a tion (Bittner, 1970). Enforced medi a tion may pro duce far dif fer entlong-term results than vol un tary medi a tion in that one or both sides mayremain dis sat is fied and seek to break the imposed con straints at some futuretime.

Police medi a tion is dis tin guished from tra di tional police work by theneed to deal per sua sively with two actors rather than just one, usu ally inquasi-legal are nas where crim i nal law is irrel e vant and the usual tools of law enforce ment are of ques tion able legit i macy or mar ginal value. Althoughtime-hon ored tech niques such as blue lies and police pla ce bos (Klockars,1991) may be used as a tac tic against one or both of the prin ci pal par ties, theessence of police medi a tion still requires find ing or cre at ing a mid dleground accept able to both prin ci pals.

Another form of police medi a tion really con sists of hold ing reg u la tory or other coer cive forces at bay, while work ing toward a goal that the reg u la toryforces do not con sider pri mary (but which are impor tant to the police). Thisusu ally means try ing to con vince the tar gets of reg u la tion—bars, ten e mentown ers, and so forth—to take semivoluntary actions to make the immi nentcoer cion unnec es sary (if action taken under threat of coer cion can bedeemed vol un tary to any degree).

There are five main are nas in which po lice me di a tion takes place. Eachcat e gory var ies ac cord ing to the de gree of so cial dis tance be tween the dis -pu tants (Black, 1991) and the le gal ob li ga tions that de fine the re la tion ship:

1. Me di a tion of con flicts be tween cohabitating per sons or in di vid u als with kin ship ties,usu ally called do mes tics (low so cial dis tance, high le gal ob li ga tions).

Buerger et al. / EX TENDING THE PO LICE ROLE 129

2. Me di a tion of con flicts be tween land lords and ten ants, but now of a dif fer ent char ac terthan in the past (mod er ate so cial dis tance, mod er ate le gal ob li ga tions).

3. Me di a tion of con flicts be tween ac quain tances, in clud ing res i den tial neigh bors (lowso cial dis tance, low le gal ob li ga tion).

4. Me di a tion of dis putes be tween neigh bor hood res i dents and lo ca tions (com mer cial orres i den tial) deemed to be at trac tive nui sances, such as crack houses and shoot ing gal ler -ies; tip pling houses and bars; porn shops, sau nas, health spas, and mas sage-par lor pros -ti tu tion fronts; fra ter nity houses; and so forth (high so cial dis tance, low le gal ob li ga -tion).

5. Me di a tion be tween guard ians/own ers and reg u lat ing bod ies such as bars and li quorcom mis sions, sub si dized hous ing sites, and their fund ing sources (high so cial dis -tance, high le gal ob li ga tion).

As em ployed in this con text, short term and long term re flect the na ture ofthe dis put ing re la tion ship or the po ten tial for dis pute, rather than the ac tualcom mit ment of the po lice of fi cers’ time in seek ing a res o lu tion. Not ev erydis pute to which the po lice are called nec es sar ily re quires a de tailed anal y -sis or long-term in ter ven tion. Many are silly squab bles fu eled by ex cesscon sump tion of al co hol and/or tes tos ter one flashes, con tex tu ally bound and un likely to re cur. They are, at worst, ep i sodic dis putes that cause tem po rarydis rup tions of the pub lic peace, not a se ri ous threat to pub lic safety or con -tin u ous dis rup tion. The crim i nal jus tice sys tem treats them as triv ial, as dopo lice of fi cers, and a nonarrest ap proach is ad e quate.

Dis putes that arise from long-stand ing, almost endemic antag o nisms can con sume large amounts of police resources in either medi a tion or inanswer ing repeat calls. As a rule, the under ly ing sit u a tions involve sus -tained inter ac tion, either on the basis of liv ing arrange ments or famil ial ties(domes tics), close geo graph ical prox im ity (neigh bor hood dis putes), orlegal obli ga tions (land lord-ten ant dis putes, licensed pre mises). They pro -duce con tin u ous con flict that may ebb and flow, but over time they pro ducerepeated dis rup tions of the pub lic peace. At the sur face level, the epi sodicerup tions that come to police atten tion are all but indis tin guish able from theshort-term dis putes, and tra di tional inci dent-based patrol tends to respondto them as short-term prob lems. One of the con se quences of the new pro-active stance of the police is to high light some of those long-stand ing dis -putes and dis tin guish them from the short-term inci dents.

PO LICE ME DI A TION OF SHORT-TERM DIS PUTES

The police have long been expected to use medi a tion in domes tic dis tur -bances and pub lic quar rels. Cumming, Cumming, and Edell (1965) found

130 PO LICE QUAR TERLY (Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1999)

that nearly 8% of all calls received at a met ro pol i tan police com plaint deskfor an 82-hour period were dis pute related. Of the 5,668 police-cit i zenencoun ters observed by Smith and Klein in 1977, 15% were inter per sonaldis putes (Smith & Klein, 1984). Of 2,298 cit i zen-ini ti ated encoun ters withthe police in Reiss’s (1971) three-city study, 20% were non crim i nal civil iandis putes.

Short-term medi a tion has received con sid er able schol arly atten tion,largely in the assess ment of train ing pro grams designed to better equip thepolice with ver bal and other tech niques in defus ing cit i zen con flict (e.g.,Bard & Zacker, 1976) and in exam in ing the cri te ria that police employ when invok ing legal and extra le gal sanc tions (Reiss, 1971; Black, 1991). It is bestviewed as being part of their imme di ate-inter ven tion prac tices (Goldstein,1977), a tool to defuse con flict quickly in reac tion to a cit i zen’s call forser vice.

Find ing a short-term solu tion to con flict is touted as an alter na tive toarrest, but the police abil ity to find such a solu tion often rests on the coer cive nature of their role (Bittner, 1970). Because arrest remains an option forresolv ing the con flict, short-term medi a tion often occurs in the shadow of“or else,” the tacit or overt threat of arrest if a more ami a ble res o lu tion is notreached. Short-term police medi a tion thus takes place within the con text ofthe street’s ver sion of bind ing arbi tra tion, the police offi cer’s abil ity toimpose a neg a tive sanc tion on one or both par ties. Indeed, some sit u a tionscan be ter mi nated only through the cred i ble threat or actual appli ca tion ofcoer cive force.

The low-level, com mon-sense approach that the police take to mostprob lems is appro pri ate to the level of threat they rep re sent to the body pol i -tic. In most cases, a sim ple “look, this is really kind of [silly]” from the offi -cer, cou pled with a sug ges tion of an ave nue of res o lu tion is enough toresolve the quar rel. When tes tos ter one surges have put egos on the line (orwhen love-tri an gle anger comes close to the level of assault), the inher entcoer cive ness of the police pres ence gives each party a way to back downwith out los ing face. Most such dis putes prob a bly do not require policeinter ven tion, except for the irri ta tion and con cern they cause to oth ers.Arrest is reserved for the intran si gent who fail the atti tude test and thosewhose con duct sug gests that a sim ple warn ing would be insuf fi cient to pre -serve the peace.

Although offi cers will always be involved in sit u a tions in which short-term medi a tion is nec es sary, not every cit i zen con flict can be resolved on

Buerger et al. / EX TENDING THE PO LICE ROLE 131

the offi cer’s first visit. Some dis putes remain active and unset tled, con tin u -ously engag ing police resources to rem edy the same sit u a tion in the sameplace. Under tra di tional patrol deploy ment, there is no guar an tee of con sis -tent treat ment. Orga ni za tional mem ory is frag mented, prob lem rec og ni tionis dif fi cult, and the lack of con sis tent assign ment under cuts any orga ni za -tional man date for offi cers to take respon si bil ity for results. As a con se -quence, long-stand ing prob lems are erro ne ously iden ti fied and treated asthough they were short-term squab bles. One domes tic sit u a tion in Min ne -ap o lis gen er ated seven sep a rate calls for police assis tance over the course ofa sin gle week end. Thir teen police cars responded to those seven calls, but no police offi cer went to the address twice (Buerger, 1992, p. 308).

“Han dle the call and get clear for the next one” is the oper a tional man date out of neces sity in tra di tional polic ing. Because most police offi cers areassigned to motor ized patrol units, the oppor tu nity for resolv ing endur ingdis putes is rare. It is pri mar ily within the con text of prob lem- and com mu nity-ori ented polic ing—where offi cers are des ig nated respon si bil ity for spe cificareas of the com mu nity and solv ing its prob lems—where long-term medi a -tion can be accom plished.

PO LICE ME DI A TION OF

LONG-TERM DIS PUTES

Police offi cers have engaged in lon ger term dis pute res o lu tions for years,but on an infor mal, ad hoc basis. Indi vid ual offi cers choose the cases wherethey think they can have some impact, where there is a chance of suc cess(offi cers may pur sue such oppor tu ni ties on the basis of a per ceived moralwor thi ness on the part of the dis pu tants involved, but that is as yet a lit tle-stud ied area). Such choices are made on the basis of the offi cer’s aware nessof her or his strengths and abil ity to influ ence peo ple in a pos i tive man ner.They rep re sent a ser vice ethic above and beyond the call of orga ni za tionalexpec ta tions. Lit tle in the ethos of reac tive patrol or in the cor po rate cli mateof police agen cies sup ports or rewards such actions. Although an offi cer’ssuc cess ful inter ven tions may be acknowl edged tac itly by her or his peers,they gen er ally are invis i ble to the for mal reward struc tures of tra di tionalpolic ing.

The com mu nity polic ing move ment is cre at ing an insti tu tional con textwhere long-term medi a tion efforts are encour aged. Prob lem- and com mu nity-ori ented offi cers are expected to broaden their medi a tion and dis pute-

132 PO LICE QUAR TERLY (Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1999)

res o lu tion activ i ties beyond the self-selected few to engage in the activ ity(make the attempt), even in cases they might regard as inap pro pri ate forsuch inter ven tion. This change has myr iad impli ca tions for both offi cersand agen cies.

DIF FER ENT DY NAMICS

One of the most impor tant con se quences pre sumed to result from thecom mu nity-ori ented approach is increased social sup port for the police.Although most of the com mu nity polic ing lit er a ture defines that sup portbroadly—doc u mented in anec dote-based pro mo tional pub li ca tions, neigh -bor hood sur veys, and occa sion ally, munic i pal bud get deci sions—there is acom pa ra ble impact at the indi vid ual level that is vital to the suc cess oflong-term medi a tion efforts.

Reiss (1971) notes that patrol offi cers must estab lish their author ity witha new cast of char ac ters every time they enter a new social scene. The natureof reac tive patrol tends to be one of con stant asser tion of author ity, estab -lish ing the offi cers’ right to arbi trate the imme di ate deci sion over the pref er -ences of one or more of the actors for pri vate res o lu tion. (One of the sourcesof fric tion between the com mu nity and the police may be that offi cers cometo antic i pate the need to assert their author ity and come on too strong,assert ing it as they enter sit u a tions where def er ence is already pres ent butunrec og nized.)

Com mu nity- and prob lem-ori ented polic ing cre ates an extended timeframe in which the offi cers’ author ity can be estab lished in noncon-frontational set tings. Peo ple with whom the offi cer has reg u lar con tactcome to regard the offi cer’s author ity as per sonal (as Reiss, 1971, notes).The inter ac tion also gives the offi cer a better under stand ing of the lives ofthe reg u lars. That, in turn, grants reg u lars more per sonal legit i macy—in theoffi cer’s eyes—than a stranger who the offi cer must eval u ate based on a lim -ited set of act ing-out behav iors, espe cially in the rel a tively anon y mous reac -tive inter ac tions.

This mutual rec og ni tion of author ity and legit i macy obvi ates the usualdramaturgy of estab lish ing the offi cer’s legit i mate author ity to inter venewhen the reg u lars are involved in con flict. Argu ably, it also gives the offi cermore infor ma tion about the causes of the con flict (at least in some cases)and a better hook with which to resolve the prob lem.

Buerger et al. / EX TENDING THE PO LICE ROLE 133

EX TENDING THE PO LICE ROLE: TWO VARI A TIONS

The New York City Police Depart ment (NYCPD) estab lished the Com -mu nity Patrol Offi cer Pro gram (CPOP) in all 75 NYCPD pre cincts in 1985,fol low ing a suc cess ful 1984 pilot pro gram in a Brook lyn pre cinct (Farrell,1984, 1986; McElroy et al., 1990; Weisburd & McElroy, 1988). CPOPdeployed foot patrol offi cers, usu ally 10 per pre cinct, to indi vid ual beatareas of 15 to 20 blocks. Unlike tra di tional foot patrols, the com mu nitypatrol offi cers (CPOs) were trained and directed to work with the com mu -nity to iden tify and solve crime and dis or der prob lems. Each CPO wasexpected to be a plan ner, a prob lem solver, an infor ma tion link, and a com -mu nity orga nizer, in addi tion to their nor mal police duties. Prob lem-solv ing activ i ties occurred dur ing the course of reg u lar beat patrol (Weisburd &McElroy, 1988).

The Repeat Call Address Policing (RECAP) team in Min ne ap o lis wasorig i nally an exper i men tal unit of four police offi cers and a ser geant.Detached from 911 response, RECAP worked on indi vid ual addresses iden -ti fied as the loca tions respon si ble for the great est num bers of calls for police ser vice. Whereas CPOP and other pro grams dealt with prob lems iden ti fiedby com mu nity com plaint or offi cer selec tion, RECAP’s tar gets were selectedby com puter rank ings of police calls for ser vice, there fore RECAP addressescould con tain mul ti ple prob lems. Whereas CPOP offi cers were respon si blefor a rec og niz able, con tig u ous beat, RECAP offi cers han dled indi vid ualaddresses through out the pre cinct and across the city of Min ne ap o lis(Buerger, 1992; Sherman, 1987; Sherman, Buerger, & Gartin, 1988;Sherman, Gartin, & Buerger, 1989).

The expe ri ences of the CPOP and RECAP offi cers illus trate both somepos si bil i ties and the pit falls that may be encoun tered by com mu nity policeoffi cers when prob lem solv ing requires medi a tion of long-term dis putes.The fol low ing sec tions draw on the authors’ expe ri ences with the CPOPoffi cers and the RECAP unit to illus trate some of the vari a tion of such inter -ven tions by spe cial ist offi cers in the new role assign ments.

EX PE RI ENCES IN LONG-TERM ME DI A TION

CON FLICTS BE TWEEN COHABITATING PER SONS

Domes tic con flicts rarely fig ure in the types of street dis or der that pro po -nents of com mu nity polic ing cite as fear pro duc ing, but han dling domes tic

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dis putes con sti tutes a major por tion of police activ ity (usu ally sec ond onlyto motor vehi cle stops in the Min ne ap o lis calls-for-ser vice data). Most patrolmedi a tion in domes tics is of the short-term vari ety, smooth ing things over ortalk ing one or the other party into leav ing (e.g., Reiss, 1971, pp. 20-21).

Although there have been attempts to improve police offi cer skills atmedi at ing such con flicts (Bard, 1970), the over whelm ing response of thepolice is to refer the vic tim and/or both par tic i pants to one or another coun -sel ing resource. If the vic tim or the prin ci pals fail to make use of the infor -ma tion, the police do not usu ally fol low up. Indeed, vic tim fail ure to makeuse of the avail able resources is fre quently cited by patrol offi cers who think that the police should not han dle domes tics on any basis other than noisedis tur bances.

Domes tics were a major prob lem at RECAP res i den tial addresses, andthe lon ger rela tion ship of the offi cers to the prin ci pals allowed better fol -low-up. In some cases, the offi cers’ per sis tence was inter preted as car ing,which was enough to reas sure the par tic i pants and encour age them to makeuse of the avail able ser vices. In other cases, the RECAP offi cers had to bring extra resources to bear on behalf of the vic tim (includ ing direct con fron ta -tion with the abuser) to resolve the sit u a tion (Buerger, 1992, pp. 153-155,166-171, 174-176). Some cases proved resis tant, includ ing a hand ful thatwere patho log i cal in nature, involv ing fre quent epi sodes of extreme, fel ony-level vio lence (Buerger, 1992, pp. 145, 211-212).

The most fre quent rea son for resis tance was the vic tim’s asser tion that “Ican han dle my own life,” essen tially a denial of the offi cer’s author ity tointer vene. Unlike the orig i nal inci dent where the par tic i pants’ con duct pro -vides legit i ma tion for police inter ven tion, attempts at long-term medi a tionrequired the offi cers to estab lish their author ity to inter vene. At the scene,the power of arrest looms large enough to com pel at least token sub mis sionto police author ity. In fol low-up attempts (with no imme di ate prob a blecause, the stat u tory after-the-event time period elapsed, and the pos si bil ityof arrest almost nil), par tic i pants feel bold enough to deny police author ity.Over time, this proved frus trat ing to RECAP offi cers, who were unsure ofhow to over come the obsta cle. Whether a CPO or a more con sis tently pres -ent beat offi cer could have brought about a dif fer ent out come is a mat ter ofspec u la tion.

One CPOP offi cer, work ing the pre cinct’s wealth i est beat (with cor re -spond ingly mun dane, non crim i nal prob lems), was drawn into a dis putebetween a sin gle mother and her 12-year-old son. Although no sit u a tion was seri ous enough to war rant arrest by respond ing patrol units, neigh bors were

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dis turbed by the noise from the apart ment when the dis putes arose. Themother sus pected the boy was using crack cocaine, a charge the boy denieduntil police found crack vials on his per son when he was arrested as arun away.

This nor mally would have been the end of the offi cer’s involve ment withthe case, but the CPO peri od i cally checked with the mother, who expressedfrus tra tion about being unable to place her son in an appro pri ate drug reha -bil i ta tion pro gram. No local facil i ties or pro grams could accept him formonths. Draw ing on con tacts he had built over the years, the offi cer con -tacted upstate reha bil i ta tion cen ters and soon placed the young ster in atreat ment pro gram out of the city.

Although the over all res o lu tion of the prob lem rested on the effi cacy ofthe boy’s treat ment pro gram and his per sonal response to it, this was a sit u a -tion that could eas ily have fallen through the cracks of tra di tional sys temresponses. The CPO was inter ven ing in a poten tially tragic sit u a tion andwas mobi liz ing resources that were beyond the capac ity of the par tic i pantsto mobi lize.

LAND LORD-TEN ANT DIS PUTES

Tra di tional police prac tice basi cally ignored dis putes between land lordand ten ant, except when dis putes boiled over into pub lic con flict. Dis putesover pay ment of rent and upkeep of facil i ties are gov erned by civil law, andin most juris dic tions, there were many insti tu tional alter na tives to policemedi a tion, including hous ing courts, ten ant advo cacy groups, land lordorga ni za tions, and so forth. When police inter vened in a land lord-ten antcon flict, it was fre quently under the guise of another activ ity, such as a com -plaint of assault, a report of bur glary as a locked-out ten ant tried to gainaccess to his or her prop erty, or some third-party report of a fight or dis tur -bance. Inter ven tion was lim ited to short-term medi a tion, sep a rat ing the par -ties, remind ing them of the civil law alter na tives, and (if nec es sary) threat -en ing to arrest one or the other party for breach of peace vio la tions if thecon flict con tin ued. Police did not inter vene in the basic rela tion shipbetween the two con tract ing par ties.

Com mu nity polic ing has brought with it a new dynamic of third-partypolic ing (Buerger & Mazerolle, 1998). Police seek to bol ster the infor malsocial con trols of the com mu nity by polic ing through third par ties, includ -ing expec ta tions that land lords use writ ten leases and enforce house rulesfor ten ant con duct. This cre ates a new bur den on the busi ness of seek ing

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profit by rent ing liv ing space, espe cially for absen tee own ers of inner-cityprop er ties. In some cases, police use the coer cive threat of reg u la toryinspec tions against land lords to cre ate a pow er ful new threat—that of civilevic tion—against ten ants who cre ate prob lems for the police (espe ciallythrough drug traf fick ing) but who man age to evade sanc tion under the crim -i nal law.

Although described here in the most cur sory form, third-party polic ing isfar more com plex than tra di tional polic ing and less under the direct con trolof the police them selves. To achieve their goals in an area for mally gov -erned by civil law, police must par tic i pate in a vari ety of nego ti ated arrange -ments in which com mand, con trol, and coer cion have no place. Instead ofdeal ing with indi vid u als on the fringes of soci ety or in per sonal cri sis, police offi cers must meet with estab lished businesspersons and pil lars of the com -mu nity (suits, in police par lance) on the lat ter’s home turf.

One prob lem in which RECAP served an inter me di ary role was that ofmixed pop u la tions in for merly senior-cit i zens-only high-rises run by theMin ne ap o lis Com mu nity Devel op ment Agency (MCDA), the pub lic hous -ing cor po ra tion/trust. The Depart ment of Housing and Urban Devel op ment(HUD) pro vided major cap i tal financ ing for the high-rises and, on the basisof that rela tion ship, demanded that a declin ing occu pancy rate be halted,under threat of ter mi na tion of fund ing. MCDA admin is tra tors responded tothat man date by hous ing dis abled cit i zens in the senior cit i zens high-risesunder a per ceived doc trine of equal access with out regard to age, derivedfrom a series of court deci sions in other juris dic tions. Under ordi nary con di -tions, dis abil ity would seem to be a proper cri te rion of eli gi bil ity for pub lichous ing. Unfor tu nately, the oper a tional def i ni tion of the dis abled includedboth men tal ill ness and alco hol ism. The result was that senior cit i zens sud -denly found them selves cheek by jowl with increas ing num bers of youn gerper sons, some phys i cally dis abled but oth ers phys i cally strong and dis abledonly by dint of their being in thrall to the grape. Still oth ers were phys i callyhealthy but men tally impaired, occa sion ally given to bizarre behav ior thatwas threat en ing to the seniors, with their dimin ished capac ity to defendthem selves if attacked and their greater vul ner a bil ity to injury.

Citing those con di tions, RECAP first attempted to per suade the MCDAadmin is tra tion to repeal its deci sion and sep a rate pub lic hous ing cli ents byage. The MCDA responded by say ing that sep a rate was a syn onym for seg -re gate, repug nant to the law regard less of its admit tedly unfor tu nate con se -quences, and they declined to change the pol icy. Ten ant orga ni za tions hadno power, and there seemed to be lit tle recourse. RECAP doc u mented the

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prob lems and ris ing con cerns of the elderly ten ants and pushed behind thescenes. They even attempted (unsuc cess fully) to meet with HUD offi cials in Wash ing ton.

Ulti mately, it was a change of admin is tra tions in the MCDA that broughtabout a solu tion. A new direc tor, will ing to risk the law suits antic i pated with the sep a ra tion of the age groups, rees tab lished seniors-only build ings on avol un tary basis. The RECAP unit sup ported the effort with pub lic ity, fram -ing the jus ti fi ca tion for the move both in terms of increased dis or der at themixed-pop u la tion build ings (as evi denced in the 911 calls for police ser -vice) and increased fear of crime on the part of the seniors.

CON FLICTS AMONG RES I DEN TIAL NEIGH BORS

Adults in a mid dle-class four-block CPOP com mu nity were agi tated bylarge groups of teen ag ers play ing street hockey late into the night. Whencon fronted about the noise they were mak ing, the hockey play ers remon -strated with the home own ers and con flict ensued, prompt ing calls to thepolice. Motor ized offi cers would break up the game and dis perse the play -ers, only to have it resume later or the next night. Home owners began call ing the pre cinct com mander to com plain about the prob lem and the inef fec tive -ness of the police response.

When the CPO first attempted to per suade the young sters to play some -where else, they replied that there was no place else to go. The CPO thenarranged for a town meet ing to medi ate the dis pute. Both sides were given achance to air their requests, with nego ti a tions mon i tored by a polit i calleader of the com mu nity, and a solu tion agree able to both sides was ham -mered out. The school yard was opened for eve ning hockey games, and thekeys to the school yard gate were kept by the par ents, who mon i tored theschool to ensure that no van dal ism took place (thus alle vi at ing the schooladmin is tra tor’s major con cern over the use of the facil ity). No more gameswere held on the pub lic streets, the late night noise abated, and calls to thepre cinct com mander ceased.

A dif fer ent solu tion to a com pa ra ble prob lem was pur sued by two CPOPoffi cers with adja cent, sim i lar beats in res i den tial areas of White mid dle-class home own ers, with a small, dense shop ping area. Nar cotics were notyet a prob lem in either beat, but other inci vil i ties of urban life were fre quentsources of com plaints by res i dents. Older res i dents were espe ciallyannoyed by young sters who con gre gated on street cor ners, play ing radios or engag ing in loud horse play. Area mer chants were upset that the teen ag ers

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were hang ing out in front of their stores and demanded that the youths bechased away. The CPOs spent an inor di nate amount of time ask ing chil drento move off the cor ners or streets or to turn the radios down.

After sev eral encoun ters, the CPOs inquired why the juve niles (most ofwhom were 12 years old or youn ger) were hang ing out so often after school.The chil dren com plained that there were no rec re ational facil i ties for them:Schools were locked up, play grounds were inac ces si ble, and streets weretoo busy with traf fic. Their fam i lies could not afford the ini ti a tion fee for thearea’s orga nized leagues, which cost up to $75 per child per year, not includ -ing equip ment costs. As an alter na tive, the CPOs orga nized weekly soft ballgames; enough youths signed up to form a four-team league. A local mer -chant vol un teered to pay insur ance costs for the league, and a local youthagency let the CPOs bor row their soft ball equip ment. Kids who had hungout on the street became absorbed with soft ball prac tice and league games.When cold weather made soft ball imprac ti cal, the CPOs orga nized a flagfoot ball league to pro vide a rec re ational out let for the young sters through -out the year.

Real is tically, the CPOs could devote only 1 day per week to the league,which left 6 other days when the kids had no other out let but to hang out intheir usual haunts. A few of the Rapid Motor Patrol (RMP) offi cers rid i culed the CPOs for not doing real police work, and one com mu nity leader arguedthat the offi cers should be on patrol rather than shep herd ing the league. Nev -er the less, the ath letic leagues helped to lessen the num ber of calls to the pre -cinct, pro vided some relief to elderly res i dents, and became an excel lentdis trac tion for bored chil dren in a lim ited envi ron ment.

ME DI ATING DIS PUTES BE TWEEN NEIGHBORHOOD

RES I DENTS AND LO CA TIONS

In a hand ful of cases (Buerger, 1992, pp. 91-94, 103-109, 110-114,334-337), RECAP offi cers essen tially medi ated between res i den tial shel terfacil i ties and incensed neigh bors who objected to the behav ior of the facil i -ties’ res i dents and guests. The threat of license revo ca tion was always in theback ground, which was the civil-law equiv a lent of arrest power. Par a dox i -cally, RECAP offi cers were fre quently advo cates for the shel ter facil i ties,nego ti at ing changes in oper at ing pro ce dures in exchange for sup portagainst attempts to shut the facil i ties down.

As a true third party, RECAP rep re sented increased police pres ence andatten tion, which was suf fi cient to allay the neigh bors’ feel ings of neglect.

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RECAP inter ven tion cre ated a brief hia tus of con fron ta tion, a space inwhich real is tic steps could be taken to address the spe cific secu rity andorder con cerns of the neigh bors rather than the amor phous sym bolic threatthat prob lem addresses some times become. Although the sym bolic issueswere reduced to man age able pro por tions, in each case, some spe cific issueeluded res o lu tion.

A men tal health half way house in a quiet res i den tial neigh bor hood was asource of con cern for the neigh bors because of prior rapes com mit ted byres i dents of the facil ity. The facil ity staff was also con cerned as much of theres i dents’ vio lent behav ior was directed at them (includ ing one rape), andthey were frus trated by the fail ure of the crim i nal jus tice com mu nity to holdthe res i dents to account for their acts. Staff wanted res i dents held account -able to the crim i nal law for their vio lent behav ior, but they had been sty miedby the legal sys tem’s blan ket appli ca tion of a dimin ished-capac ity dis pen -sa tion. The RECAP offi cer acted as an inter me di ary, pre sent ing to the cityattor ney’s office the staff’s evi dence for a pol icy change (a report froman insti tu tional psy chol o gist who had secretly vid eo taped patients talk ingwith each other about how they had suc cess fully manip u lated their ill nessto avoid being held account able for inten tional mis deeds) and work ingthrough the Men tal Health Roundtable advi sory group to try to sway theHennepin County Court.

Ulti mately, the endeavor failed. Although the city attor ney’s officeagreed to bring some fla grant cases for ward, the Hennepin County benchappar ently pre ferred not to take on the bur den of hav ing to make deci sionsin such a gray area. Unwill ing to “impose any ‘nor mal’ sen tence if there was a men tal health alter na tive avail able,” even (per haps espe cially) if the vio la -tion took place within the men tal health sys tem, they refused to go alongwith the inno va tion (Buerger, 1992, pp. 75-77).

ME DI A TION WITH REG U LATING AGENCIES

One of the RECAP addresses was a small bar on the north side. Althoughnot a major con sumer of police resources, it had a dis pro por tion ate share offight calls and other nonnoise dis tur bances. Dis cus sions with the staff andplain clothes obser va tion of some typ i cal nights revealed lax man a ge rialprac tices, but the owner was coop er a tive and per son ally inter ested in mak -ing the job of run ning the bar eas ier. She took the RECAP offi cer’s sug ges -tions, and calls to the bar began to drop (her efforts were bol stered by

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indi vid ual con sul ta tion between the offi cer and some long-stand ing patronswho were slow to under stand that the rules had changed).

How ever, a rep u ta tion as a prob lem bar had already been estab lished, and when RECAP closed down two other extremely trou bled bars throughharsher mea sures (Buerger, 1992, pp. 1-6, 133-139), other com mu nity lead -ers jumped on the band wagon with their pet peeves. The coun cil mem berrep re sent ing that ward asked for a pre cinct-based ini tia tive sim i lar toRECAP. The bar owner was faced with a new series of threats of sanc tiondespite hav ing coop er ated with RECAP and despite the improved con di -tions of the recent his tory. She appealed to the RECAP offi cer, who had toappeal to the coun cil mem ber’s office on behalf of the owner to pre serve thegains already made.

In another RECAP case, an offi cer made con tact with the owner of anapart ment build ing in a state of change. The man had sold the build ing to apart ner ship after own ing it for sev eral years but had just got ten the build ingback when the part ner ship defaulted on the con tract (Buerger, 1992, pp.232-236). The interim own ers had milked the prop erty as a cash cow, tak ingall the rental income as profit and allow ing the phys i cal plant to dete ri o rate.When the prop erty reverted to the prior owner, it was in worse phys i calshape than when he sold it, inhab ited by a more trou ble-prone pop u la tion,and the sub ject of a stack of expen sive repair orders from the city hous inginspec tor. Because the owner was mak ing a good-faith effort to improve theprop erty, the RECAP offi cer appealed to both the dis trict hous ing inspec torand the Office of Housing Inspec tions, secur ing a grace period for the owner to struc ture the finances needed for the exten sive improve ment effort. Thealter na tive course would have meant the clo sure of the build ing for fail ing to respond to the repair orders, with the sub se quent loss of rent rev e nues forthe owner and the prob a ble aban don ment of the prop erty as a finan cialalba tross.

CHANGES WROUGHT BY LONGER IN TER AC TIONS

Accord ing to the ten ets of both com mu nity- and prob lem-ori ented polic -ing, police are charged with improv ing con di tions and con trol ling con duct.Struc turally, their deploy ment should pro vide a lon ger term rela tion shipwith all stake holders, includ ing the com plain ants, those com plained about,and those with only a generic inter est. One puta tive ben e fit of extendedinter ac tion is the abil ity to gather more infor ma tion over time than is usu ally

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avail able at the scene of an inci dent. Knowl edge of the par tic i pants’ inter -ests and moti va tions enable a com mu nity-ori ented offi cer to read the sit u a -tion better than the more iso lated, reac tive patrol offi cer can. Knowl edge ofthe offi cer’s per son al ity and integ rity may give par tic i pants greater trust inthe solu tions pro posed by the offi cer.

The tra di tional police role is coer cive, and the his tory of polic ing dem on -strates that there are clear lim its on the effec tive ness of coer cion alone. Par -tic u larly in low-level dis or der cases, the win ning party in a coer cive inter -ven tion is very often not the peo ple involved in the dis pute but the moreneb u lous entity of the pub lic, whose atten u ated inter est in the pub lic peaceis pre served at the expense of the dis put ing par ties (Reiss, 1971). Police canquell con flict with over whelm ing coer cive force, but that approach has twoneg a tive con se quences: it leaves the orig i nal source of the con flict intact(although not all such con flicts sur vive the even tual sobri ety of the par tic i -pants), and it often trans fers or engen ders anger toward the police. The newcom mu nity-ori ented police role does not for sake coer cion but regards it asone tool among many. Using per sua sion may allow an offi cer to find bettersolu tions for sit u a tions that coer cion resolves only tem po rarily; it may leadto solu tions for prob lems that coer cion has been unable to resolve at all.

The key to com mu nity-ori ented polic ing’s suc cess is the greater per son -al iza tion of police-cit i zen inter ac tions. All the play ers, includ ing the tem -po rary medi a tor (the police offi cer), are known in dimen sions of their livesthat tran scend the imme di ate fric tion that brings them together. Rather thanresort to the larger pol ity of the pub lic peace, offi cers craft solu tions tai lored to the legit i mate needs of the prin ci pals to the dis pute, hope fully leav ingevery one with enough invest ment in the solu tion to be sat is fied.

Not every police inter ven tion inev i ta bly leads to a happy con clu sion, andthere are still some areas of con cern for long-term offi cer involve ment. Thecom mu nity polic ing lit er a ture tends to be upbeat, cel e brat ing suc cess in anattempt to gen er ate opti mism and to con vince both reluc tant cit i zens andresis tant police offi cers to com mit them selves to the new part ner ship. Thelit er a ture does not dwell on the intrac ta ble, insol u ble prob lems that bedeviloffi cers of all stripe, but such sit u a tions cer tainly exist.

Neg a tive out comes are also known in tra di tional polic ing, of course (e.g., Manning’s [1997] dis cus sion of uncer tainty and Muir [1977] pas sim), butas the ori ented polic ing styles sys tem at i cally push the hori zons of policeinter ac tions in a dem o cratic soci ety, the poten tial for new vari a tions growsexpo nen tially. Aside from the ever-pres ent dan ger of cor rup tion, there aresev eral poten tial dan gers to extend ing the prob lem-solv ing role.

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PO TEN TIAL PROB LEMS

Burn out. Most of the glow ing reports about the new com mu nity-ori ented role draw upon rel a tively short peri ods of time, dur ing which a halo effectdescends over the activ i ties of a new pro gram. Increased inter ac tion withpeo ple can be a wear ing expe ri ence, how ever, par tic u larly after the easyvic to ries have been accom plished and the dif fi cult and intrac ta ble casesremain. Like social and med i cal work ers, police offi cers can become burned out from overexposure to an intense array of human needs. Police depart -ments have learned how to assist offi cers involved in trau matic inci dents,but the infra struc ture for sup port ing offi cers through the frus tra tion ofinten sive long-term sit u a tions does not yet exist. Burn out can also occurwhen prom is ing solu tions fail because of lack of resources or because thelip-ser vice com mit ment of oth ers is not real ized. The police lit er a ture con -tains a grow ing num ber of ref er ences to this burn out phe nom e non (Buerger, 1993a, 1993b; Guyot, 1991; Schwartz & Clarren, 1977 ), and it is a plau si -ble neg a tive con se quence for the new role.

Tun nel vision. One poten tial pit fall of both prob lem- and com mu nity-ori ented polic ing strat e gies is a fail ure to see other alter na tives. This is par -tic u larly true in sit u a tions where one of the dis pu tants with holds infor ma -tion vital to the res o lu tion effort, manip u lat ing dis clo sure in an attempt touse the offi cer’s author ity to sway the res o lu tion of the mat ter in the dis pu -tant’s favor (Buerger, 1993b). In sim i lar fash ion, tun nel vision may affect an offi cer’s def i ni tion of the prob lem itself, blind ing him or her to infor ma tionsources that might lead to a rediagnosis of the prob lem and per haps to newapproaches to prob lem res o lu tion. As in inci dent-based polic ing, pos i tivesuper vi sion can help over come tun nel vision; in long-term sit u a tions, thereis greater like li hood that such over sight will be brought to bear.

Per son al iza tion. Becom ing an inter ested party to the dis pute can bedeadly to its res o lu tion because it intro duces an extra ne ous vari able—oftenthe offi cer’s ego—into the pro cess. In reac tive polic ing, this usu ally takesthe form of one of the pri mary par tic i pants fail ing to show proper def er enceto the offi cer, com mit ting the infor mal fel ony of con tempt of cop. The lit er -a ture is fairly silent on lon ger term vari a tions, although the authors’ directobser va tions sug gest that in a nonreactive assign ment, per son al iza tion of an issue leads as much to avoid ance as to con fron ta tion (Buerger, 1993b). Thisis par tic u larly true when deal ing with third par ties, nom i nal respectables,

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against whom the usual coer cive mea sures can not be employed and whohave at their dis posal an array of polit i cal resources that may be brought tobear against the police as a coun ter mea sure. In addi tion, more aggres siveper son al iza tion might cer tainly lead to abuses of author ity asso ci ated withshort-term reac tive con tacts, result ing in a dimin ish ing of the offi cer’s infor -mal author ity in the com mu nity at large.

Overidentification. Inor di nate empa thy with one or another party to adis pute, for pos i tive as well as neg a tive rea sons, may dimin ish an offi cer’seffec tive ness by cre at ing a spe cific kind of tun nel vision. Effec tive ness inlong-term prob lem solv ing is depend ent on all par ties rec og niz ing the offi -cer’s bal anced judg ment and his or her author ity. For instance, had theCPOP offi cer refused to apply needed coer cion against the addicted teen -ager’s act ing-out behav ior, based on a rec og ni tion of the need for drug treat -ment to cor rect the under ly ing prob lem, it could have under mined the offi -cer in the eyes of the com mu nity bear ing the brunt of the boy’s pre da tion.Dur ing RECAP, offi cers ini tially tended to overidentify with land lords’descrip tions of their dif fi cul ties, which were couched in per sonal terms thatevoked sym pa thy of offi cers who were defin ing their work as sup port ive.When the unit com mander pointed out that land lords were engaged in aprofit-driven, cor po rate busi ness that in many cases was dis tinct from theirper sonal finan cial sit u a tions, the offi cers real ized the dif fer ence and took on a tougher stance toward unco op er a tive land lords and slumlords (Buerger,1993b).

Overcommitment. Overcommitting to a prob lem and not see ing that it is a no-win sit u a tion can crip ple offi cer effec tive ness. This con di tion can ariseas an out growth of per son al iza tion, but it may also stem from an intensedesire to right a con spic u ous and offen sive wrong. The rule of law and thedic tates of munic i pal finances throw dif fer ent but equally for bid ding obsta -cles in the way of prom is ing solu tions. Even when the resources are avail -able, human nature often leads to well-laid plans going astray. It is pos si blefor offi cers to become bogged down in no-win sit u a tions, turn ing them intogrudge matches, even when there are no resources and no clear ideas abouthow to go about cor rect ing the prob lem.

Unin tended con se quences. Taking on new chal lenges with a can-do atti -tude enjoys great cachet in the mythol ogy of Amer i can achieve ment, butsuch endeav ors also run the risk of dis cov er ing new pit falls. Prob lem-

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ori ented polic ing, with its empha sis on devel op ing new and better sourcesof infor ma tion about prob lems, is par tic u larly vul ner a ble to back lash onthis score. Dif fi culties may result from faulty anal y sis if offi cers pur sueintu itively log i cal solu tions to prob lems they erro ne ously or incom pletelyunder stand. Law enforce ment solu tions may back fire when applied to prob -lems that are essen tially social in nature and vice versa. When work ing ineth ni cally diverse com mu ni ties, the need to do some thing about a par tic u larprob lem may out strip the nat u ral learn ing curve about cul tural frame works,thus well-inten tioned efforts either miss the mark or cause inad ver tentoffense. Offi cers may be deceived by the cli mate of com mu nity sup port andengage in activ i ties that offend com mu nity sen si bil i ties. A cor ol lary dan geris that com mu nity sup port will embolden offi cers to pur sue unlaw ful tac ticsin pur suit of a desir able goal (Klockars, 1991; Sutton, 1991). Over use ofmar ginal or con tro ver sial tac tics may lead to a back lash that cre ates a legalban on the tac tics.

DIS CUS SION

The prob lems out lined above mostly occur at the level of the indi vid ualoffi cer(s) involved, but they have ram i fi ca tions for the entire orga ni za tion.Because the police essen tially began expand ing their role in hap haz ardfash ion in an effort to con trib ute ex nihilo some sub stan tive def i ni tion to thephi los o phy of com mu nity polic ing, lit tle fore thought and prac ti cally nosys tem atic eval u a tion of the con se quences has yet been under taken. At thepres ent time, eval u at ing the effec tive ness of prob lem-solv ing efforts isalmost exclu sively anec dotal in nature, based largely on short-term results.The ele ments that iden tify sit u a tions ame na ble to suc cess ful inter ven tionhave not yet been deter mined, nor have the ele ments of ade quate and inad e -quate per for mance for offi cers (both in terms of attempts and out comes).Police have not yet deter mined how to dis tin guish no-win sit u a tions ordevelop ways to suc cess fully dis en gage from them. The oppor tu ni ties formean ing ful inter ven tions are not equally dis trib uted, nor are the dif fi cul tiesof iden ti fied prob lems. Both can affect the nature of per for mance eval u a -tions. All of these ele ments still need to be devel oped, lest over reach lead tothe fail ure of unre al is tic expec ta tions and the aban don ment of a prom is ingnew tool for polic ing.

Training in prob lem-ori ented polic ing has tended to revolve around thedis sem i na tion of anec dotes and case stud ies, assum ing (or hop ing) that theles sons gleaned are both cer tain and generalizable. It is not yet clear that the

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anec dotal exam ples are com pre hen sive or pres ent all the infor ma tion nec es -sary for under stand ing the full dynam ics of the sit u a tion. It is also not clearthat the anal y sis of the sit u a tions (usu ally done by the case offi cers, espe -cially those pub lished in the prac ti tio ner lit er a ture) is com pre hen sive orunbi ased. Much more work is needed to con sol i date the pub lished canon ofprob lem-solv ing case stud ies for the pur poses of study and fur ther anal y sis.

Police orga ni za tions need to estab lish clear guide lines for tar get selec -tion, and bol ster them with mech a nisms for midcourse eval u a tion of resis -tant prob lems. More impor tantly, mech a nisms for dis en gag ing from intrac -ta ble prob lems must be estab lished. Super vi sory train ing is needed to helpsuper vi sors and man ag ers build on for mal train ing cur ric ula, adapt ingclass room les sons to con di tions on the street and in the com mu nity. In addi -tion, super vi sors and man ag ers need train ing in how to inter vene in sit u a -tions where road blocks lead to the devel op ment of burn out, per son al iza tion, tun nel vision, or overcommitment. The con se quences of not doing so can be severe, both for offi cers and for the agency, which is polit i cally vul ner a bleto any back lash over mis takes.

Extending the police role is a nat u ral and desir able con se quence of com -mu nity- and prob lem-ori ented endeav ors. It has the poten tial to increase thever sa til ity and effec tive ness of the police estab lish ment and to enhancecareer sat is fac tion for indi vid ual offi cers. To reach its full poten tial andavoid the pos si ble snares and tra vails out lined above, the police must rec og -nize the full range of pos si bil i ties (not just the pub lic rela tions slo gans) andbegin the task of estab lish ing and sup port ing the expanded nature of policework. Police must guard against uncrit i cal adop tion of new tech niques orsolu tions based only on the opti mis tic pro jec tions of how they ought towork. Care ful plan ning and the abil ity to dis cern or pro ject the ram i fi ca tions of new tac tics will be needed to guide the police in the uncharted waters oftheir extended role.

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Michael E. Buerger is an asso ci ate pro fes sor at North east ern Uni ver sity’sCol lege of Crim i nal Jus tice in Boston, Mas sa chu setts. After 9 years as amunic i pal police offi cer in New Hamp shire, he has been a police researcherin a vari ety of set tings, most recently serv ing as research direc tor for the Jer -sey City, New Jer sey, Police Depart ment. His cur rent inter ests are prob lem-and com mu nity-ori ented polic ing ini tia tives, their impact on police man age -ment struc tures, and the resis tance of police cul ture to reform.

An thony Petrosino is re search fel low at the Cen ter for Eval u a tion at theAmer i can Acad emy of Arts and Sci ences, within its Ini tia tives for ChildrenPro gram. He is also re search as so ci ate at the Har vard Grad u ate School of

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Ed u ca tion, and co or di na tor for the Camp bell Crime and Jus tice Group, anin ter na tional net work of in di vid u als who will pre pare sys tem atic re views ofhigh-qual ity re search on what works in crim i nal jus tice.

Car o lyn Petrosino is as so ci ate pro fes sor of so ci ol ogy and an thro pol ogy atBridgewater State Col lege, Bridgewater, Mas sa chu setts. She re ceived aBach e lor’s of Sci ence from Howard Uni ver sity, Wash ing ton, DC; a Mas ter’sin so cial work from Rutgers Uni ver sity, New Bruns wick, New Jer sey; and aPh.D. in crim i nal jus tice from Rutgers Uni ver sity, New ark, New Jer sey. Shehas con ducted re search and has pub lished sev eral ar ti cles on the prac ticesand pol i cies of pa role de ci sion mak ing, eval u a tion re search of com mu nitypo lic ing pro grams, po lice sub cul ture and intra-agency com mu ni ca tion pat -terns, and per cep tions of po lice sub cul ture among mi nor ity of fi cers. She iscur rently in volved with ex am in ing re cruit ment ini tia tives of hate groups inAmer ica and is pres ently ed it ing a vol ume on the harm of hate crime for theJour nal of So cial Is sues.

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