ABSTRACT
In this concluding chapter, the author reflects on the past, current, and future development of problem-oriented policing. He argues that terrible things happen, both individually and more broadly; we know that they are terrible; we know that what we are doing is ineffective; and largely we keep on doing them. In the United States, this has largely been true for high-level problems such as urban homicide, gun violence, and drug epidemics. And despite the now well-established record of innovative and successful public-safety and crime-prevention interventions-such as problem-oriented policing-those interventions and that thinking are not the norm. Problem-oriented policing has been adapted to address some such high-level problems, including intimate partner violence. It represents an alternative to traditional thinking about such problems and can, in practice, offer a way out of the lack of policy development and practical movement around such problems. This chapter addresses the American experience with addressing high-level public-safety problems in order to frame the limitations of traditional thinking and to suggest the merits of a routinized use of higher-level problem-oriented public safety.
