The Role of Research and Analysis: Lessons from the Crime Reduction Programme

The British Crime Reduction Programme ran from 1999 to 2002. One of its streams, the Targeted Policing Initiative, was specifically concerned with fostering problem-oriented policing. Fifty-nine projects were funded at a cost of some £30 million, over two rounds. This paper outlines the ways in which projects were agreed and reviews the analyses contained in the bids for funding. As with previous British and American accounts of analysis in problem-oriented policing, the extent and quality of the work undertaken was found to be rather limited. Several possible implications of this pattern of findings are outlined and discussed. First, despite the difficulties uncovered, it does not follow that problem-oriented policing is fundamentally flawed and should be abandoned. Second, problem-oriented policing may require substantial increases in agencies' capacities for the required forms of analysis. Third, the Crime Reduction Programme may have provided inadequate and inappropriate support for problem-oriented policing, and thus comprises a flawed test of police analytic potential. Fourth, differing types of problem addressed by a problem-focused police agency may require varying types of analytic skill, not all of which could realistically be expected within a police agency. Crime Prevention Studies, vol. 15 (2003), pp. 147-181. Karen Bullock and Nick Tilley