Partnership and problem solving

AIG AUSTIN I. IWAR, rtd
Senior Policing Advisor
Nigeria Policing Programme (NPP)
26th and 28th February 2020

Partnership Building
“The team will not be productive until they
identify a common interest or goal”.
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together
is progress, working together is success”
Henry Ford.
“Never doubt that a small group of committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only
thing that ever has”
Margaret Mead

 Community Safety Partnerships
The Problem
 Police work in Nigeria is predominantly reactive;
 There is a need to increase the focus on preventing crime;
 There is a need to widen the focus of police activity to
safety issues as well as crimes;
 Limited working with other partners & agencies with a loss
of co-ordination to deal with social issues;
 Need to develop problem solving techniques;
 Need to respond to public concerns & crime proactively.

Background
 Currently, reports & concerns are dealt with as isolated
matters rather than approached in a connected way
through joint or partnership approach to resolve or
reducing systemic & ongoing safety issues;
 Community safety is about delivering local solutions to
local problems that have been identified by local people.
 CSP - a process through which key organisations in a
community come together to work in partnership with
each other & with the public, in order to achieve a safer
living environment for all.

 This workshop will focus on:
 State the four stages of Partnership Development;
 State the possible problems to partnership building;
 Describe the benefits of working in partnerships;
 Understand that many problems in modern society
cannot be solved by one individual, or group alone;
 Identify how to tackle problems effectively;
 Examine the SARA Model of Problem Solving;
 Work with the Problem-Solving Worksheet

 Reminder:
 Community policing is a partnership between
the police & the community to work together to
define crime-related problems, determine
the root causes & then implement solutions
which will permanently reduce or eliminate
these problems.
 Community policing is cooperative effort
involving all affected participants from
government, neighbourhood, social, civic,
educational, & religious groups to identify,
address & solve problems.

 The successful implementation of a community safety
scheme rests upon the following key principles:
 respecting the rights of citizens
 responding to public concerns about safety & feelings of
safety
 recognising that local people often have the best
understanding of local problems
 working in partnership with the community & all relevant
organisations or groups to identify & address these
problems

 recognising that working together & sharing resources is
the most cost-effective means of resolving problems
 recognising that no single organisation working alone can
solve problems affecting the whole community.
 A successful community safety scheme will improve
security & safety, increase citizens’ feelings of safety &
encourage community participation.
 Successful partnership will ensure that the community
especially women, the poor & the disadvantaged have a
voice in developing plans to deal with community safety
issues.

 What you can achieve
 reduction in crime & community concerns
 reduction in the fear of crime
 better identification of community safety issues
 provide representation for marginalised groups
 joint working to better resolve crime & community safety
issues through a joined up approach which brings the
different experience & skill sets of partners to be applied to
problem areas

 improved trust & confidence in the police
 making the police more accountable to the public through
this inter-agency approach.

 What is a Partnership & what is it in a policing
context?
 A partnership brings together institutional
capabilities & human resources in the form of
skills, experiences & ideas to tackle common
problems that are often beyond the capacity of a
single organization or group; or
 A cooperative relationship between people or
groups who agree to share responsibility for
achieving some specific goal.

 Partnerships are intended for joint solving of
problems, resource exchange, cooperation,
coordination & coalition building. The
relationship among partners can be temporary
(local bodies, including government, grassroots
NGO’s) or permanent
 In a policing context it is the police & the
community they serve working together to
resolve local issues, whether they are crime
related, or social. Working in an environment based
on mutual trust.

Key Partnership Concepts
 Communication: potential partners start talking
to understand each other through formal
consultations, workshops, & meetings around
common issues;
 Cooperation: reaching an understanding to assist
each other;
 Coordination: agree to combine resources & agree
on roles & responsibilities;
 Collaboration: ultimate aim of partnership;
partners work to develop problem solving activities
based on joint planning

Key Partnership Concepts
 Trust: most important if the partnership is to be
interpersonal, inter-institutional, cross cultural
differences transparency is the basis for a solid &
honest relationship;
 Mutuality: partnership relations are open to
dialogue & exchange of views. Respect is of utmost
importance;
 Solidarity: sensitivity & commitment to the
problems, efforts & constrains of other partners
 Accountability: any partnership involves rights &
obligations.

Why Should We Build Partnerships?
 The improvement of relationships between
diverse groups
 The enhancement of communication
 The means of finding solutions to complex issues
 A means of supporting change
 The development of a more pro-active,
preventative approach to addressing community
crime, disorder, and social nuisances

 What do Effective Partnerships Have in
Common?
 Promote team building, a sense of ownership,
enthusiasm, & an environment that maximizes the
chance of positive outcomes for the community;
 Partnerships can be formed for any number of
reasons, however all partnerships share the
following characteristics:
 Shared authority, risk, responsibility &
accountability;
 Synergistic investment of resources;
 Provision of mutual benefits;

 What Causes a Partnership to Fail?
 Partnerships will not succeed if the following
characteristics are in place:
 A simple gathering of people who want to do
something, with no clear goal or objectives;
 Hidden motivations or agendas;
 Lack of trust;
 Lack of sharing of risk, responsibility, and
accountability;
 One person has all the power and decision-making
capability;
 Lack of support from supervisors/managers;
 A forced gathering due to external pressure;

 How to Build Strong Partnerships
 Strong partnerships do not just happen. Skills, knowledge &
experience are required when people are brought together to address
community issues. To have an effective partnership, the following
components must be in place:
 Clearly defined membership with specific roles & functions;
 Trusting relationships among & between the partners;
 A shared vision & common goals & objectives for the partnership
 Strong commitment to the vision, goals & objectives
 Expertise
 Teamwork strategies
 Open & effective communication
 Adequate resources
 An action plan
 A commitment to evaluation, adaptation (lessons learned),
persistence and innovation

Advantages of Partnerships
 Partnership is a horizontal relationship
 Partnership builds synergy
 Partnership is mutual dependence
 Partnerships brings expertise to the table that
partners lack individually
 Partnership accomplish more by bringing their
skills & experiences

Benefits of improved Police-Community
Partnership
 Improved Relations allow Police Officers to:
 Police more effectively & face less complaints & litigation
 Find their jobs safer & easier to do
 Be treated with greater respect & have better morale
 Improved Relations Allow Community Residents to:
 Have more trust & less fear of police
 Have a safer community
 Have less tension & conflict
 Gain greater cooperation from police
 Gain increased safety for children & elderly
 Gain quicker resolution to crime

 Process of Building Partnerships
 Step 1: Decide if Partnership is the Best Solution
 Step 2: Determine Membership
 Step 3: Build Trust
 Step 4: Establish a Shared Vision & Common Goals
 Step 5: Expertise
 Step 6: Develop Teamwork Strategies
 Step 7: Open Communication
 Step 8 Adequate Resources
 Step 9: Develop Action Plans
 Step 10: Measure Progress & Success

 Step 1: Decide if Partnership is the Best Solution
 Conduct Self-Assessment
 Why am I interested in this partnership?
 What skills & resources do I bring to the group?
 Do I work well with others?
 What will I require from my organization to be effective and feel
supported?
 Are there any work or personal issues that might affect my
partnership involvement (e.g. conflicts of interest, time
constraints)?
 What personal & professional opportunities & advantages do I see?
 Can I communicate & express myself in a group?
 Who or what am I representing?
 What authority do I have?

 Community Assessment
 How do you know the partnership is needed?
 How do you know there is support for this partnership
from the community, other organizations & the people
who will most benefit from it?
 How would the partnership benefit the community?
 Who are the individuals or groups that might be
interested and appropriate to have involved?
 What sort of resistance to the partnership (if any) might
exist?
 Is the political climate favorable for this partnership?
 From the community’s perspective, what is the most
successful outcome of the partnership?

 Discussion
 Take a look at the community assessment
questions listed above. Think about a possible
problem within your community, which could be
solved by building a partnership. Once you have
identified the problem, use the list of questions
above to determine whether or not your
community is ready to take part in partnership
building.

 Step 2: Determine Membership
 Who would care if the problem were solved/issue
were addressed?
 Who does the problem or issue affect?
 Who can help solve the problem or address the
issue?
 Who has knowledge about the issue & skills to deal
with it?
 Who will benefit if the problem is solved or the issue
is addressed?
 Who would bring a diverse viewpoint to the
partnership?

 Discussion
 Think about one of the problems/ issues, which is of concern
to your community, that may be addressed through an
effective partnership. With this problem/issue in mind,
complete the following exercise:
 Identify the key stakeholders with whom to collaborate in
addressing this issue/problem.
 State your reasons for identifying individuals or organizations
as stakeholders.
 Speculate on how the individuals or organizations will envision
their role and what expectations they may bring to the project.
 State how you envision the individual or organization being
involved in the partnership.
 Identify what the individual or organization will bring to the
partnership.
 State what the goal will be of working with the individual or
organization.

 Discussion
 Identify the benefits to the individual or organization
from the relationship.
 Identify what the individual or organization will bring to
the partnership.
 State what the goal will be of working with the individual
or organization.
 Identify the benefits to the individual or organization
from the relationship.
 Once you have completed the above exercise, develop a
plan to obtain the commitment of the identified
stakeholders for the collaborative effort. The plan should
address how the individual or organization will be
contacted, by whom, and by what date.

 Step 3: Build Trust
 Trust is the foundation for all aspects of participation.
What is most important for trust to develop is respect
for one another (including respecting one another’s
differences), integrity, & open communication.
 Trust must often be developed on a one-to-one basis
between partners. Sufficient time must be allowed
during the planning process to allow this trust to
develop.
 Trust should deepen as the collaborative effort proceeds
& partners prove themselves through their
performance.

 Building Trust in the Community
 Talking to individuals in the community & identifying
their needs assists in establishing the trust required to
build partnerships.
 Two key elements will invariably become evident -
honesty & accountability.
 People want information, communication of facts &
community issues, & access to data of interest &
concern to their livelihood. They want to know what
the police & government are doing & how their
interests are being addressed (i.e. transparency).

 Discussion
 Read the following case study & determine how
you would handle the incident keeping in mind
the need to build trust within your community
for future incidents.
 The KAROTA workers in Kano City have not been paid
their salaries for 6 months. They are planning a public
demonstration outside the Government House for three
days time. The demonstration is planned to be a
peaceful one, but it is anticipated that this will create
traffic problems within the city and may degenerate to
violence. How would you handle this situation? How
might you prevent an escalation to where public safety
is at risk? How could you ensure a peaceful
demonstration through trust building measures?

 Building Trust within Partnerships
 Make Face-to-Face Contact
 Listen and Show Respect
 Do Not Hurry
 Establish Ground Rules
 Be Trustworthy
 Do Not Ignore Potential Conflicts
 Ensure all information and decision-making is shared
 Allow for Confidentiality

 Step 4: Establish a Shared Vision and Common
Goals
 A vision encourages partners to look at the positive
outcomes of the partnership & to develop an idea of
what the future should hold.
 The vision statement will form the basis for all
planning & will be referred to in order to gain (or
re-gain) focus for the team. And, all members of
the partnership must support it.

Goals
 What does a Vision do?
 Provides direction for resource allocation in
collaborative ways;
 Directs discussion;
 Provides a common ground & defuses
disagreements;
 Serves a basis for future planning;
 Serves as a public relations tool;
 Keeps the motivation for the partnership alive.

Goals
 What are the steps for Developing the Vision?
 Plan the Vision meeting;
 Invite stakeholders to the Vision meeting;
 Identify a facilitator and other staff for the meeting;
 Conduct the vision meeting;

 Step 5: Expertise
 Identify the knowledge and skills needed
 Identify gaps in knowledge and skills
 Know how to conduct effective meetings.

 Step 6: Develop Teamwork Strategies
 Ensure that all partners have a part in
developing the shared vision and common goals
 Determine roles and responsibilities
 Involve all partners in project activities,
meetings, and discussions
 Seek commitment from partners
 Acknowledge and reward team members

 Step 7: Open Communication
 Define basic terms
 Practice effective communication skills
 Create and adhere to guidelines on how to
address conflicts

 Step 8: Adequate Resources
 build and strengthen the partnership’s human
resources – sharing leadership, encouraging
diversity & engaging youth
 Seek People/Organizations with Power and
Influence
 Identify the Partnership’s Financial Needs
 Develop Realistic Estimates of Time

 Step 9: Develop Action Plans
 Call a meeting to develop the action plan
 Write down and distribute the plan for partners’
review
 Incorporate any changes that partners
recommend and agree upon
 Use the action plan
 Ensure outcomes are measurable

 Step 10: Measure Progress and Success
 Evaluation allows a partnership to evaluate its progress
and to measure success. Evaluation is a means for
ensuring accountability - that you are achieving what you
want to achieve.
 When developing the goals of the partnership, there
should be discussion about how to evaluate the
partnership.
 Being able to define progress and success is important not
only for the partnership but for others who are interested
in its outcomes.

 Now that we have reviewed the process of building
partnerships, you be able to determine how a
partnership can be developed within your
community. Go to your community and talk to
members to determine what issue/problem could be
addressed through a partnership.
 With this knowledge, develop a strategy for dealing
with this issue using the steps outlined in this
module. Use the questions listed below to assist
you in determining if you have included the most
important information in your strategy.

 Are all partners affected by the problem addressed?
 Is there a strong core of committed partners?
 Are there ways for meaningful involvement from all interested
partners?
 Have team norms been developed?
 Do partners demonstrate a willingness to share resources?
 Are all team members clear about the purpose of the team?
 Do you trust team members to move beyond personal agendas?
 When new people join the team, is it easy to explain what the
team is about?
 Do all team members agree on the purpose of the team?
 Are meetings well run and organized?
 Do you know what skills other team members have?

 Do you know what skills/expertise the partnership needs to
achieve its goals?
 If you have a task that requires expertise unavailable within the
team, do you know where to access that expertise so
implementation of the plan can continue?
 Do people volunteer freely to work on projects?
 Do team members share responsibility for completing tasks?
 Is it clear and agreed upon within the team how decisions are
made?
 Do all people feel free to speak at meetings?
 Are decisions and information communicated to all members in
a planned fashion?
 Is there a regular time to give feedback to the project leadership?

 Do you feel that your opinions are heard and respected?
 Are there enough people involved in the project to do the tasks
in a realistic timeframe?
 Do you have the financial resources to do what the team
wants?
 Do members of the team share leadership responsibilities?
 Are youth involved as full partners in the problem-solving
process?
 Is it clear what strategies you are working on?
 Are team members clear about their assigned tasks?
 Does the team seem to stay on track in addressing the issue?

The Four Stages of Partnership Development

 Stage 1. Identifying Partners (Gathering People)
 Our community is full of potential partners. Sometimes we
overlook people, simply because we don’t encounter them on a
regular basis;
 The more different your partners, the stronger your group;
 Recruiting potential Partners, we must learn about them, their
talents, their strengths & weakness, potential obstacles for
cooperation;
 Group diversity leads to comprehensive information,
comprehensive information leads to understanding,
understanding leads to effective solutions. Every team will
have a different set of skills & talents. The idea is to recruit all
of the skills that you need (fill your weak spots), & then use
what you have to make a unique difference.

 Stage 2. Analyzing Partners (Working out
differences)
 Recruiting potential Partners, we must learn about
them, their strengths& weakness, potential obstacles
for cooperation.
 Some considerations while working out of differences
with your potential partners:
 Good communication
 People’s different problem solving styles
 Necessity of consensus building
 People's natural resistance to changes

 Bridging Police and Community
The most important things I need from the police or community
are ………….
What I wish the community or police would understand about
us is ……….

 We should Analyze our Partners in the following way:
 The Name of the Institution/entity/
Organization
 Internal Organizational Structure
 Leaders
 Contact Information
 External Hierarchy
 Tasks, mandates, goals
 Benefits of cooperation with them
 Obstacles or constraints of establishing
partnerships

 Stage 3. Finding Common Ground
 We’ll not be productive until we identify our common ground (
a common interest or goal)
 Community safety, i.e. reduced crime & fear of crime, reduce
violence amongst youth, increased quality of life – that is the
common ground that you can find working with your
partner in your communities.
 Police have unique powers, expertise & duties in respect of
crime prevention. The consent & cooperation of the public
& other agencies greatly enhance the potential of police to
reduce crime & create a more crime resistant society.
 All efforts to reduce crime & fear of crime must however
operate within strict parameters of quality, integrity &
legitimacy.

 Our desired outcome is WIN-WIN when both
parties gain in contradiction with LOSE-LOSE
when both parties lose & WIN-LOSE when ones’
gain is the others’ loss.
 Move from COMPETITION to COLLABORATION
or “MUTUAL GAIN”
 The most appropriate agency should be allowed to
do what they do best.

 Stage 4. Institutionalising (Getting things
done)
 After establishing common ground next stage is
Institutionalising;
 Under Institutionalising we consider:
 Establishing Joint Working groups
 Participation in permanent inter-agency forums
(councils, committees, etc. )

Note:-
“The most appropriate agency should be
allowed to do what they do best”
 The Police will not solve a problem if the cause or
solution is under the control of another agency or
NGOs.
 To win over partners, DPOs together with their
personnel should help identify significant benefits
that potential partners might accrue from
partnership.

Possible Problems to Partnerships building
 What are the possible problems to building
partnerships?
 What are the benefits of working in
partnerships?

Possible Problems to Partnerships building
 Failure to adhere to the agreed rules & principles for partner
interaction, behaviour & productivity;
 Lack of clear & fair decision-making process, plans &
sharing of information;
 No focus on the agreed plans to empower the communities
& involve them as much as possible;
 Failure to promote & maintain full involvement. Lack of
culture of respect & encouragement by all partners;
 No regular communication. As collaboration is the ultimate
goal;
 No feasible scope of activities, by starting small & gradually
growing;
 Lack of patience & persistence in implementing activities
when obstacles arise;

Benefits of working partnerships
 We gain public trust. The community feels involved in
process of decision making.
 The community understands better police functions &
tasks.
 We know the public opinion about their job that gives us a
possibility to correct their mistakes and to improve their
success.
 It enables the citizens to better appreciate the capabilities
& limitations of their department.
 Increased citizen involvement should eventually result in a
decrease in calls for police service.
 We gain intelligence. In the fight against crime, police
encourage community members to come forth with

 We gain support from the public. The police can never be
successful by working alone.
 The community assists the police in defining future
priorities and in allocating resources.
 We have personal pride for serving people.

Discussion
 How do you tackle a problem effectively –
what is meant by effectively?

 Understand the challenges
 Identify the priorities
 Act effectively
 Assess progress
 Partnership – locally - nationally
 Information – locally - nationally
 Prevention – locally - nationally
 Pro-activity – locally - nationally

In closing – Remember
 Community policing is the responsibility of both
Police & community members. Both have important
roles in community policing.
 Police & local citizens are all members of the
community & that crime prevention is everyone’s
business.

Problem solving
“Community Policing without Problem
Solving = merely community relations”
The ultimate goal of Community Policing
problem solving is always a better quality of life
for the community.

Learning Objectives
Understand that problem solving is one of four key
community policing components; without which the other
components are merely community relation;
Focus on crime, fear, & disorder problems as an essential
part of community policing;
Using SARA to develop strategies to impact crime, fear, &
community disorder.
Recognize the value & potential for applying community-
organizing strategies to help solve crime & order
maintenance problems.
Identify resources & methods to begin the process of
mobilizing the community for problem solving.

What is Problem Solving?
Problem solving is a process of:
1. Identifying community crime, disorder & fear
issue;.
2. Understanding the conditions that give rise
to these problems;
3. Developing & implementing long term
solutions specific to the problem;
4. Looking at the impact of those solutions on
the problem.

Initial problem identification
 Who, or what organisation, is raising the issue?
 Is there anyone else raising the issue?
 What people or organisations are involved as part of the
problem?
 Are there other perceptions of the problem?
 What are the significant concerns that are present?
 Is there any historical information available?
 Are there other factors that are relevant?
 Who should be our partners in supporting our actions?
 What are we trying to achieve?
 Detailed research conducted must include the Victim, the
Offender and the Location)

The SARA Model
 The first stage is Scanning: which means identifying
problems using knowledge, basic data and other
information;
 The second stage is Analysis: using previous experiences,
local knowledge and information technology to dig deeper
into problems’ characteristics and underlying causes;
 The third stage is Response: devising a solution through
working with the community, wherever possible;
 And the fourth stage is Assessment: looking back to see if
the solution worked and what lessons can be learned.
 The SARA model is of use to crime reduction practitioners in
any field. Using this model allows to avoid any waste of time
and recourses if only part of the actual problem is identified.

Types of Problems for SARA
Crime
 Patterns of any crime type.
 Property Crimes – like burglary, thefts, vandalism, auto theft, fraud,
etc.
 Violent Crimes – like robbery, domestic violence, rapes/sexual
assault, robbery, assault, rape, etc.
 Organized Crime – like drug dealing, gang activity, ecomog etc.
 Other “Quality-of-Life” Crime Problems – like prostitution, fraud,
traffic, residential disputes, disorderly conduct, etc.
Fear of Crime
 People are afraid to leave their homes at night, or walk alone.
 Children are afraid to play outside or in the park.
 Neighbors fear & mistrust each other.
 People are afraid to report problems to police & other authorities.

Types of Problems for SARA
Disorder
 Usually involving how things look & feel – what the
community sees as unpleasant, or criminals see as helpful &
inviting.
 trash or pollution, overgrown lots, dark streets,
 abandoned buildings, abandoned cars,
 loud noise, suspicious persons, shabby-looking property, etc.

Crime is Concentrated
In most communities, we tend to see the following patterns:
 10% of offenders account for 55% of crimes
 10% of victims account for 42% of victimization
 10% of locations account for 60% of calls for service

SCANNING
 Scanning allows incidents to be grouped into clusters or
‘problems’. These problems comprise similar related or
reoccurring incidents & are identified from police
data/information/intelligence & information from the
community;
 Incidents may vary in terms of their seriousness,
particularly in crime terms, but they may all be of concern
to the community and call for a community and/or police
response;
 problems identified in the scanning phase of the process
should not be ‘one-offs’, they should be problems that are
reoccurring incidents.

Problem Identification
 Talk with community residents, citizens; Community meetings
 Citizen surveys
 Talk with workers from other agencies
 Talk with other government or business workers
 Information or reports from state & local government agencies
 Crime reports, statistics, & analysis
 Patrol officers, investigators
 Information research and planning division
 Information from national groups, organizations, associations
(i.e. PCRC, `NGOs, CSPs etc)
 The media
 Study results of SARA assessment

Problem Identification
KEY POINTS
 for selecting a problem for a SARA project:
 Is it really a crime, fear, or disorder problem?
 Given limited resources, is it a community priority, or
should it be?
 Is it narrow enough (small enough) for you to really do
something about it, or
 should it be broken into several smaller problems?

Five Ways to Impact Problems
 Eliminate the problem;
 Reduce the harm created by the problem;
 Reduce the number of incidents (how often it happens);
 Improve the handling/managing of the problem;
 Refer the problem to non-police authority; (only if you
really can’t do anything about it)

SCANNING
Exercise (identifying the problem)
a. Identify 5 common problems in
your community (crimes or
human misbehavior). Work with
the problem solving worksheet
on.
b. Choose one problem on which to
work with and debrief the results

ANALYSIS
 In this phase, partners identify the conditions that give
rise to a particular problem by examining the
characteristics & impact of the problem in greater
detail. For example: scanning might have revealed that
there were many thefts from shops in a particular area, but
analysis will provide the hour, day or month that the thefts
took place & from which particular shops.
 Analysis involves collecting information about
offenders, victims, the time of occurrence, location & other
details of the physical environment, the history of the
current problem, the motivators, gains & losses of involved
parties, the apparent (and hidden) causes & competing
interests, & the results of current responses.

ANALYSIS
 Police & others may need to talk to colleagues, partners,
local businesses, or other members of the community to
better understand the problem. As well as police data,
information held by other organisations such as NGOs,
NHRC, NAFDAC, NDLEA, MDAs, hospitals, local
authorities, schools may be useful.
 It helps to be as precise as possible in defining the
problem, having identified the incidents to be included in
the analysis. It is crucial to establish what it is about
the location, the victim,& the offender & source of
the problem that causes it to arise, & how & when it
happens. This may need some lateral thinking to define
the factors behind a problem.

ANALYSIS
 At this stage of SARA Analysis involves:
 break the problem in its constituent elements;
 Examine each of them;
 identify the underlying conditions that enable the
problem;
 to plan creative & preventative solutions in order
to address the issue
 identify potential partners
 The goal is to understand what’s really going on, &
why

ANALYSIS
 Analysis: learning more about the problem:
 “Internal” evidence: reviewing all police reports
/intelligence
 “External” evidence:
a. Surveying the community
b. Reviewing citizen complaints
c. Participating in community meetings
d. Reviewing information from neighborhood
associations
e. Consulting social service/governmental agencies
f. Following media coverage and editorials

ANALYSIS
 Reasons why analysis is sometimes overlooked or
skipped:
 The nature of the problem falsely appears obvious at
first glance;
 Some internal & external pressure to solve the
problem immediately;
 Underestimating analytical work that takes time but
does not produce arrests or other traditional
measures of police work;
 A strong commitment to the old ways of handling
problems.

ANALYSIS
 Research has shown that:
 10% of OFFENDERS commit 55% of crimes,
 10% of VICTIMS account for 42% of victimization,
 10% of LOCATIONS account for 60% of police
calls.
 To have a strong impact on crime, fear of crime &
the quality of life, we must think strategically to
impact multiple offenders, repeat victims &
recurring locations.
 If we impact the right 10% - we might cut our
crime in half.

Problem Analysis Triangle
 A tool which can be used at the analysis stage is the
Problem Analysis Triangle (PAT), also called the
Crime Triangle which derived from the Routine
Activity Theory developed by Cohen (1979) and Felson
(1994). PAT breaks incidents down into three
constituent elements:
 the incident’s location;
 the target/victim;
 the offender or the source of the incident.
 Understanding the weaknesses in the problem analysis
triangle in the context of a particular problem will
point the way to new interventions.

Problem Analysis Triangle (PAT)

 Victim:
 Who are the direct victims (those who are harmed) &
who are the indirect victims (those who feel unsafe)?
 b. What do they do repeatedly that makes them
victimized?
 c. Why do they do that?
 d. What can be done in order to stop/prevent that
reoccurring behavior?
 e. Who can stop/prevent that reoccurring behavior?

 Location:
 a. What are the locations (the crime scene + the
entire area which becomes unsafe as result of the
crime)?
 b. What makes the location unsafe (suitable for the
reoccurring crime)?
 c. Why does it happen?
 d. What can be done in order to make the location
safer?
 e. Who can make the location safer?

 Offender:
 Who are the offenders (in the broad meaning of this
word)?
 b. What do they do repeatedly that makes the
location and the victims unsafe?
 c. Why do they repeatedly do that?
 d. What can be done in order to stop/prevent this
reoccurring behavior of the offenders?
 e. Who can stop/prevent this reoccurring behavior
of the offenders?

Exercise: Analysing the problem
 Using the Problem solving worksheet. Analyse
the chosen problems using the problem
Analysing Triangle.
Debrief results

RESPONSE
 This is about devising a solution through working
with partners & community to plan & take action
 Response refers to any action taken to address a
problem.
 Might vary from the simple action plan to the
complex planning in the long-term;
 Analysis work helps to identify or isolate the element
that can most easily & effectively be tackled to resolve
a problem;
 In selecting responses, it is crucial to work out in
detail how they are expected to produce their intended
effects.

RESPONSE
 EXAMPLE: Problem - gangs of young people frequently
attacking or intimidating people leaving a public house &
walking along a poorly lit street;.
 LOCATION: Tackling the lack of lighting by bringing the
problem to the attention of the relevant authorities.
 OFFENDERS: Considering why the youths hang around
the area, to establish whether there is something that
brings them there, or whether there is a lack of other
places to go.
 TARGET/VICTIMS: Enlisting the help of the local
community by encouraging them to keep a special watch
on the area & to lobby the local authority to provide better
amenities for young people.

RESPONSE
 Answers:….
 Who needs to do that
 What needs to be done
 When it needs to be done
 Where it needs to be done
 Why it needs to be done

RESPONSE
REMEMBER:
IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN
TO FAIL

RESPONSE
Exercise:
Using the Problem Solving
worksheet
create the strategy on the analysis of
the chosen problems using
answering What – who – where –
when – how – why questions.

ASSESSMENT
 Collecting pre-response, ongoing & post-response
qualitative & quantitative data in order to:
 determine whether the plan was implemented
 identify any new strategies needed to augment the
original plan
 better handle incidents & improve response to the
problem
 Conducting ongoing assessment to ensure continued
effectiveness

ASSESSMENT
 Strategies for information gathering
 “Internal” evidence
 Reviewing all police reports
 “External” evidence
 Talking and listening to officers
 Interviews of people in the area (formal)
 Newspapers
 Conversations with local community (informal)
 Information from NGOs, EPF, NHRC, NGOs, PCRC etc

ASSESSMENT
 traditional measures, such as arrests & number of field
interviews conducted, may not be that useful for your
problem-solving effort, unless these measures can be
directly linked to a long-term reduction in the harm
associated with the targeted crime problem.
 Quantitative measures
 Numbers of reported crime
 Numbers of arrests
 Qualitative measures
 Increased safety
 Changes in community perception
 Nontraditional structure for determining effectiveness

As three questions
 What can I do to help the individual or
community?
 What can I do to detect the crime?
 What can I do to ensure this does not happen
again?

Partnership and problem solving

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