The Four Aspects Of The SARA Problem Solving Process

Defining the crime problem is a vital step in controlling crime. Crime is undoubtedly a significant and pricey societal problem but we cannot target the problem without first defining it. There is no one identical solution to crime, instead it is based on a piece by piece basis. Strategies to target crimes need to target larger geographical areas, sometimes entire states. In addition, for a strategy to be successful in controlling a crime it cannot be too vague or extremely specific to an index crime. An example of a crime a law should target is: drug sales in a problem neighborhood or rapes at a city park. –Chapter 1 Page

Hopeful in this paper will give the strengths and weakness, when, why and who started SARA Model, Problem-Oriented Policing and Community- Oriented Policing. These are methods that will be use throughout the law enforcement filed. And know the key components and how to use them will beneficial to you as you progress in your file of chose with the law enforcement filed.

Crime Displacement entails the relocation of a crime an aspect that can result from the actions of Police in their crime prevention efforts. Crime displacement results from various reasons such as policies, community development, and migration of the targets that may force the criminals’ to move to other places. For instance, communities with good amenities such as street lighting and surveillance cameras may

Hot spots policing revolves around the idea that crime is focused in small problem locales, and that crime can be more efficiently reduced if police concentrate their efforts on those smaller areas (Papachristos & Hureau, 2012). By stopping crime in smaller areas, it is easy to prevent it from growing in larger parts. Activities like patrolling high crime areas and presence of law enforcement officers in the area are performed will reduced crime (Hot spots policing, 2017, What is the focus of the intervention?). “When authors calculated the overall

Community policing has evolved to be the most used strategy for policing. “It is an approach to crime detection and prevention that provides police officers and supervisors with new tools for addressing recurrent problems that plague communities and consume a majority of police agency time and resources” (Peak, 2012, 65). It has been defined by various people differently. But all the definitions have similar principles (Chappell, 2009). They focus on proactive problem solving and create relationships with the community to address any issue that may arise. Community policing is a combination of client-oriented and problem-oriented policing.

The term “problem solving” in this context implies more than just simply eliminating and preventing crime. It is a concept that assumes that crime can be reduced in an area by studying the characteristics of the problems in that area and then applying the appropriate resources. The theory behind the concept is that underlying conditions create problems, and problems created by these conditions may cause incidents. These incidents will continue as long as the problem that creates them exists. Determining the underlying causes of crime depends, in great part, on an indepth knowledge of community. Thus community partnership will be of great assistance in the problem solving process. Cooperative problem solving also builds trust, and facilitates the exchange of information, and also leads to identifying other areas that can benefit from the mutual attention of the police and community (Gaffigan, 1994).

The first stage of the SARA model is scanning. Scanning means to identify the problem. “A problem is a set of harmful event in a community that people expect the police to address”. (Clark & Eck, 2014). Before we can develop a solution, first they need to have a problem to solve. Therefore when working on scanning, it is important for the police to find out the consequences of the problem and also how often this problem does happens. “There are six required elements of a problem in a community”. (Clark & Eck, 2014). The six elements include

Crime analysis is a tactic that police officers need in order to enhance their prevention, investigation, and apprehension skills (Foster, 2013). Crime analysis is a set of organized, diagnostic processes that furnish prompt, relevant information about crime patterns and trend correlations to assist police in criminal apprehension, crime prevention, evaluation of organizational procedures, and disorder reduction (Flash Card Machine, 2012). Crime mapping plays a key role in conducting modern crime analysis (Foster, 2013). The minimum type of technology required for accurate crime analysis is: a laptop or desktop computer with sufficient speed, enough hard disk storage to accommodate data and functions, and a high-quality printer that can handle color maps and workload (Foster, 2013).

Beginning in the 1990’s, crime numbers began to fall and and there are many explanations for the decrease in crime. To begin, the police began using new catching approaches by changing aspects such as an increase in enforcement of nuisance activities. Additionally, they began to invest in their technology and started to identify crime hot spots. The hot spots are where crime is found most often but never recognized.

Everyday in the United States major crimes are committed which cause risk and much destruction to the many neighborhoods and communities of America. For many years it has been a job for investigators to figure out why these crimes are being committed and where they are most likely to occur. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) are just two of the many methods used by the government in order to keep track of criminal activities and to collect data.

Problem oriented policing is geared toward solving problems. The first step in problem oriented policing is the identification and selection of a problem. One method of identifying, analyzing and selecting a problem is known as SARA. The acronym SARA stands for scanning, analysis, response, and assessment (Cronkhite, 2013). The Center for Problem Oriented Policing has several problem-specific guides for different problems that police and a community may face. The guides cover a variety of subjects ranging from burglary to gas drive offs. Each guide discusses the problem and factors involved and offers suggestions derived from police report and research of the problem (Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, n.d.).

It is also important to note that the data packet specified the majority of the juvenile crimes recorded in 2013 were occurring on Fridays (CEBCP, 2013). However, there was no consistent monthly pattern that could be determined. We believe the juveniles would offend on Friday due to the release of school for the weekend. Because there were multiple schools within the hotspot, there would be a large convergence of juveniles at or around the same time. Also, there were multiple transit stops and paths within the hotspot. Crime might have been exacerbated by the transient nature of the area. There was recently a large event that brought approximately 1,000 people to the area (CEBCP, 2013). This would also result in a large convergence of people along the bus stops and bring strangers to the area, aggravating the current crime problem. However, Group 2 specifically focused on the juveniles who were shoplifting clothing from the nearby stores.

First, community policing can be identified or known in numerous ways, one being the broken windows theory. An overview of broken windows theory through policing is known that because of “lack of social order” or policing neighborhoods are unkempt and vandalized. As a result, with the help of community policing, programs are evaluated, crime patterns are analyzed, and information is shared with organizations and other municipal agencies and with the community to help build stronger bonds with the community(Reisig,

By implementing the problem oriented policing program, resources will be deployed to problematic areas creating safer communities. This is completed by a method known as SARA (Scan, Analyze, Response, and Assessment)

and so forth, to identify crime patterns, clusters, suspects, and hot spots. Strategies are then