The Center for Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) is a nonprofit organization that was founded around research at the University of Albany and aims to promote problem-oriented policing.
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The POP center provides police nationwide with training and resources to incorporate problem-oriented policing into their departments.
Problem-oriented policing is a strategy that involves police finely examining issues in order to develop new effective responses.
The organization pulls police, researchers, and universities together in improving the U.S. police system. Michael Scott, the POP center’s director, has an extensive background in both the police field and in academia.
Once a police officer himself, Scott was also a senior researcher at the Political Executive Research Forum and student at Harvard Law School.
The POP Center’s associate directors, Ronal V. Clarke and Graeme R. Newman also hold prestigious credentials that are in line with the group’s merging of academic policing research with department implementation.
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The POP center releases guides on specific policing problems, responses, problem-solving, and other topics to aid police departments and criminal justice programs in problem-oriented policing methods.
Over 9,000 copies of the POP center’s guides have been passed along by U.S. Department of Justice programs. These guides have been used by federal agencies, police training programs, and college courses.
The Herman Goldstein Award is one of the POP center’s largest projects. The award is given annually to individual police officers and departments globally that use exemplary problem-oriented policing strategies to reduce crime and improve safety in their communities.
In 2011, the POP center awarded the Herman Goldstein Award to the London Metropolitan Police Service. The police department partnered with Transport for London on the issue of cycle theft.
The London Metropolitan outlined their approach to bicycle theft using the problem analysis triangle and the SARA model, which are common problem-oriented policing methods.
The award is announced at the annual Problem-Oriented Policing Conference, which is sponsored by the POP center. This October the 2015 conference will be held in Portland, Oregon and hosted by the Portland Police Bureau.
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