The POP officer is a position appointed by the Chief of Police under the command of the Commander of Investigations.  The POP officer reviews incidents assigned to him via the POP Referral Program in regard to problems that have been addressed by the Patrol Division at the same location on at least three (3) occasions in which no resolution has been reached.  The POP officer then reviews the referrals and directs and coordinates our problem solving efforts to eliminate or better manage the problems while working with the beat officers, neighbors, village resources and other who may be of assistance. 

Problem oriented policing (POP) was developed to look into the root of problems which generate high numbers of calls for service. This meant looking at these problems in both a traditional method of law enforcement and other non-traditional methods not commonly utilized by patrol officers. Usually the problems deal with residences, apartments, businesses, schools, etc. that are generating high number of calls for service.

The job of the POP officer is analyze these problems using a formula as follows:

Scanning

During this process the officer(s) look at the area and the type of calls for service which are being generated. This includes identifying the parties involved and the crime involved if any.

Analysis

In this stage the POP officer will start gathering detailed information about the identified problems. The goal on this is to understand the scope, nature, and causes of the problem.

Response

During this process the POP officer will put into action the means which have been developed to rectify the problem. This could mean breaking the big problem down into some smaller problems.

Assessment

After the officer has put the strategy into action and the problem has been resolved or corrective action has been taken, the solution is evaluated as to how successful it was. This also gives officers an opportunity to assess what he/she can do differently in the future.