Proactive Alliance - Problem-Oriented Policing Training
In collaboration with the Arizona State University Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Safe Night is proud to introduce Proactive Alliance - Problem-Oriented Policing (PA-POP). This new and innovative model and curriculum combine the skills of Proactive Alliance relationship-based policing with problem-oriented policing.
This course of training is available to anyone interested in developing productive and purposeful relationships to further problem-oriented responses. This curriculum is the first of its kind, building on the course developed over twenty years ago for the U.S. DOJ COPS Office.
Pairing Proactive Alliance (PA) with Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) addresses a significant challenge in modern policing, the gap between knowing what to do and knowing how to do it. Proactive Alliance gives officers a menu of responses and teaches them a relationship-based framework to collaborate with business owners, landlords, or community leaders to fix the underlying issues voluntarily.
To Schedule PA-POP Training:
About the ASU Center for Problem-Oriented Policing
The mission of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing is to advance the concept and practice of problem-oriented policing in open and democratic societies. It does so by making readily accessible information about ways in which police can more effectively address specific crime and disorder problems.
The Center for Problem-Oriented Policing was founded as a private non-profit organization in 2002. In 2015 it became a center at Arizona State University's Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions, with affiliations with other police practitioners, researchers, and universities dedicated to the advancement of problem-oriented policing.
The work of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing was principally funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services from 1999 to 2012. Its founders were Michael S. Scott, Ronald V. Clarke, and Graeme R. Newman. Others instrumental in developing the POP Center were Herman Goldstein, John E. Eck, Deborah Lamm Weisel, Rana Sampson, and Karin Schmerler.
History of Problem-Oriented Policing
"In the late 1970’s, researchers, police professionals, and policymakers became interested in improving the effectiveness of policing. Research during this period pointed out the limitations of random patrol, rapid response, and follow-up criminal investigations–practices that had been the foundation of policing for many years. These findings laid the groundwork for the emergence of problem-oriented policing.
The research yielded important insights:
- Police deal with a range of community problems, many of which are not strictly criminal in nature.
- Arrest and prosecution alone–the traditional functions of the criminal justice system–do not always effectively resolve problems.
- Giving the officers, who have great insight into community problems, the discretion to design solutions is extremely valuable to solving the problems.
- Police can use a variety of methods to redress recurrent problems.
- The community values police involvement in non-criminal problems and recognizes the contribution the police can make to solving these problems.
Early experiments in problem-oriented policing occurred in Madison, Wisconsin; London; and Baltimore County, Maryland in the early 1980’s. The first evaluation of an agency-wide implementation of problem-oriented policing took place in the Newport News, Virginia Police Department by the Police Executive Research Forum in the mid-1980’s. Since then, many police agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand have continued to experiment with problem-oriented policing, to apply it to a wide range of crime and disorder problems, and to change their organizations to better support problem-oriented policing.
As problem-oriented policing has evolved over the last two decades, researchers and practitioners have focused on the evaluation of problems, the importance of solid analysis, the development of pragmatic responses, and the need to strategically engage other resources–including community members, city departments and government agencies, and local business and service organizations."
(ASU Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, 2026)
