It is not well understood how place-based policing strategies affect police-community relations and provide broader benefits than crime reduction.

Community-Oriented Policing (COP) and Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) are two key approaches to “hot spot” place-based policing that aim to enhance community-police relationships and reduce crime. COP has traditionally been used as an approach to address community outcomes, such as police legitimacy and police-community relations, whereas the place-based POP approach uses the SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment) model to find effective solutions to problems and reduce crime. Although these approaches are complementary for collaborating with the community and reducing crime, there are few studies that combine and rigorously evaluate both approaches.

NORC studied the effect of place-based policing strategies on crime reduction and broader benefits for the community and police agencies. 

Funded by the National Institute of Justice, NORC at the University of Chicago and George Mason University conducted a randomized controlled trial to test whether place-based policing strategies can not only reduce crime but achieve a broader set of community and police agency benefits. NORC examined the effect of a place-based policing strategy that emphasizes problem-oriented policing (POP) and elements of community-oriented policing (COP) in 102 areas across two Mid-Atlantic sites. The combined approach of using COP and POP was called CPOP. Between March 2019 and August 2020, one half of the areas received CPOP services. The other half received regular patrol services. The CPOP intervention was evaluated using multiple data sources, including reported intervention activities, official police data, and community surveys.