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.
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City of Fairfax Police Department Adopts PA-POP
The City of Fairfax Police Department, VA, and collaborating municipal agencies are flipping the script on traditional enforcement by adopting Safe Night’s PA-POP model. It marks an evolution in how the city protects and connects its community. Here is a look at how this approach works and what it means for Fairfax residents, local businesses, and municipal teams.
What Exactly Is the PA-POP Model?
Developed by consulting firm Safe Night in collaboration with the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, PA-POP fuses two proven public safety methodologies into one operational strategy. Rooted in counseling psychology, Proactive Alliance (PA) teaches officers and city staff how to develop individual relationships with relevant stakeholders for the purpose of collaborative problem-solving before crises occur. While Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) is a diagnostic, data-informed strategy that identifies the root causes and environmental conditions driving recurring issues, rather than just treating symptoms. Together, PA-POP transitions community stakeholders from passive observers into active partners in the co-production of public safety.
Breaking the Silos: A Whole-City Initiative
One of the most notable aspects of the City of Fairfax’s rollout is that it isn’t isolated to police officers. Issues like quality-of-life complaints, downtown entertainment district management, homelessness, and code compliance involve zoning, human services, parks and recreation, and local business owners. By training alongside other city departments, Fairfax is creating a unified municipal playbook:
- Unified Language: Patrol officers, code compliance inspectors, and outreach workers operate from the same playbook, relying on empathy and relationship management.
- Shared Ownership: If a commercial corridor experiences recurring disturbances, the answer isn’t just adding extra patrols. City agencies, property owners, and business operators collaborate to identify root environmental risks, such as lighting, patron flow, or staffing, and address them collectively.
- Trust as an Operational Asset: By engaging business owners and community members during calm moments, officers establish rapport and open communication channels that pay dividends when unexpected challenges arise.
Why It Matters for Fairfax Residents and Businesses
For anyone living in, working in, or visiting Fairfax, the shift will feel tangible. Local businesses and venues gain collaborative partners instead of punitive inspections. Agencies work alongside managers to mitigate liabilities, boost patron safety, and ensure vibrant commercial spaces. Rather than waiting for a dispatch call when a problem peaks, neighborhood concerns are addressed through open dialogue and collaborative problem-solving. Lastly, the Proactive Alliance framework prioritizes empathy-based, trauma-informed techniques, ensuring outreach efforts meet people with support and resources.
A Model for 21st-Century Community Safety
The City of Fairfax’s embrace of Safe Night’s PA-POP model proves that true innovation in public safety isn’t just about community events; it’s about deepening human connection. By investing in purposeful relationships, data-driven prevention, and cross-agency teamwork, Fairfax is building a community where safety is something everyone has a hand in creating.
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)
