Putting POP to the pavement: captains in the Charlotte–Mecklenburg Police Department share their experiences

Abstract

Problem‐oriented policing (POP) has been in existence for approximately 30 years. Very little research has examined officer perceptions pertaining to their engagement in POP. This research utilizes interviews with captains in the Charlotte–Mecklenburg Police Department to explore officer behaviors and perceptions pertaining to their engagement in POP. A content themes analysis conducted on the captain interviews provides a discussion regarding what the captains feel is necessary to successful POP projects, what they feel has contributed to the success/failure of their projects, what they have learned from their engagement in POP efforts, how they have implemented POP and how they supervise officers engaging in POP.

Keywords:

• problem‐oriented policing
• officer perceptions
• POP
• problem‐solving

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Charlotte–Mecklenburg Police Department for taking part in research that examined the institutionalization of POP in the CMPD. Specifically, I would like to thank Chief Darrel Stephens (retired 2008) for his continued commitment to policing research. I would also like to thank Paul Paskoff (director of CMPD RPA) and the other members of research, planning and analysis for their assistance in coordinating the CMPD research effort. I would also like to thank Dr Sam Walker for his encouragement and support during my dissertation/academic pursuits (from which this article is a product) at the University of Nebraska Omaha. I would also like to thank Glenn Roseman for editorial comments he made on an early draft of this article. Finally, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments that improved this paper.

Notes

1. There were no key findings or relationships regarding captain demographic characteristics and this research; thus there is no discussion regarding these elements in this article.