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Introduction
Herman Goldstein first introduced the concept of problem-oriented policing (POP) in 1979, arguing that senior management, not line officers, should be responsible for identifying, analyzing and developing responses to problems ([21] Goldstein, 1979; see also [23] Goldstein, 2003). In his review of problem-solving strategies, [23] Goldstein (2003) highlights that the success of POP hinges on the support of senior leaders and their ability to build capacity. Successful implementation of POP, therefore, starts with senior executive officers recognizing and articulating the importance and value of the POP approach.
Despite a culture of innovation in policing over the last few decades, police agencies continue to experience difficulties when implementing contemporary policing models ([36] Ratcliffe, 2008), including POP. Typical problems include internal resistance to reform ([18] Etter, 1995; [19] Finnane, 1999; [23] Goldstein, 2003; [27] Mastrofski and Uchida, 1993; [41] Scott, 2003; [46] Skogan, 2008), superficial adoption of innovation ([1] Allen, 2002; [55] Weisburd et al. , 2003), tensions between frontline officers and managers ([13] Darroch, 2009; see also [37] Reuss-Ianni, 1983), conservative police culture ([9] Chan, 1997; [20] Foster, 2003), lack of police leadership in shaping both officer behavior and police organizational behavior ([45] Skogan and Frydl, 2004), and difficulties for police in both managing information technology and integrating information technology into new policing models ([35] Ratcliffe, 2005; see also [53] Tilley, 2003). POP, like other policing innovations, suffers from these types of implementation issues.
Two decades of problem-solving experience show that police agencies need strong leadership, flexible organizational structures, sophisticated technical skills, engaged partners, the capacity to overcome risk aversion and systems in place to disseminate problem-solving knowledge ([7] Bullock and Tilley, 2009) to successfully implement POP. Of all these challenges, [23] Goldstein (2003) highlights the importance of strong leadership. For [23] Goldstein (2003), senior management, not beat officers, must drive POP.
This paper explores the role of leadership in fostering agency-wide adoption of POP. Specifically, we use interrupted time series models to isolate the impact on crime trends of a transformational leader's efforts to spearhead the implementation of a program of POP in a southern state in Australia. Our research examines how executive leadership in an Australian police agency structured the prioritization of crime reduction goals within a POP reform agenda. We begin the...