More Than Response: Building a Realistic Proactive Mindset for Cops
- Michael Burgess
- 5 hours ago
- 10 min read
Why evidence-based and problem-oriented policing must be translated into practical, everyday police work
Law enforcement has always changed. Sometimes that change happens gradually through leadership, training, experience, and research. Other times, it happens suddenly after a major incident, public pressure, or civil unrest. Either way, the profession has never stayed the same.
That does not make change easy.
Cops work in a difficult profession. They face danger, uncertainty, criticism, trauma, limited resources, manpower shortages, budget constraints, and community expectations that are often hard to meet. Those realities are part of the job, and they are not going away.
But those realities cannot become excuses for doing things the same way forever.
The profession still has a responsibility to keep learning, adapting, improving, and working smarter. Communities change. Crime patterns change. Technology changes. Laws change. Public expectations change. The officers entering the profession today face different challenges than officers who started 20 or 30 years ago.
What worked before may not work the same way now.
That does not mean the past was wrong. It means the present requires a different level of understanding, strategy, and adaptability.
The public also demands more from law enforcement today, and the profession is under a level of visibility that previous generations of officers never experienced. Cell phones, surveillance cameras, body-worn cameras, the internet, and social media have changed the environment police work in. Actions that once may have been seen only by those on scene can now be recorded, shared, debated, criticized, and judged in real time.
That reality creates pressure, but it also creates an opportunity.
If police are going to operate effectively in this modern environment, the culture and mindset of the profession must continue to adapt. This does not mean abandoning officer safety, sound tactics, enforcement, or the realities of the job. It means strengthening the profession by helping officers think more strategically, act more deliberately, understand problems more deeply, and prevent harm more effectively.
That is where proactive crime prevention becomes so important.
Evidence-based policing and problem-oriented policing are not abstract academic ideas. When properly understood and applied, they can help agencies identify patterns, understand underlying problems, focus limited resources, use data more effectively, engage the right partners, and take action before harm continues or escalates.
The challenge is not simply knowing these strategies exist.
The real hurdle is helping officers, supervisors, and leaders at all levels understand what they mean, why they matter, how to use them, and how to make them part of everyday police work. Officers need to be trained to ask better questions, seek out better information, use data and evidence, identify what is driving recurring problems, and act in ways that are realistic, effective, proactive, and sustainable.
In the modern policing environment, the status quo is not enough. Police will always have to respond to calls, enforce laws, and handle dangerous situations. But if the profession wants to better protect communities and officers alike, it must also become more prevention-minded, more data-informed, more problem-oriented, and more willing to adapt.
The Real Challenge Is Buy-In
One of the biggest barriers to change in law enforcement is not always the strategy itself. It is buy-in.
Cops are often skeptical of change. Some of that skepticism comes from experience. Some comes from bad implementation in the past. Some comes from feeling like new ideas are created by people who do not understand the realities of the job. And some comes from officers being told to do something without truly understanding why it matters.
That is where many agencies lose the room.
Evidence-based policing, problem-oriented policing, SARA, data-informed deployment, focused deterrence, place-based strategies, and proactive prevention can all sound good at the leadership level. Chiefs, command staff, and executives may hear the research, attend the conference, understand the concept, and want to move their agencies forward.
But somewhere between the conference room and roll call, the message often gets lost.
What started as a thoughtful strategy becomes an order.
What started as problem-solving becomes a task.
What started as prevention becomes another box to check.
And when officers do not understand the why, the how, the goal, or the benefit, they are far less likely to truly commit to it.
They may comply, but they will not necessarily buy in.
First-Line Supervisors Are the Cultural Gatekeepers
This is why first-line supervisors are so important.
A sergeant can either reinforce progress or quietly stop it before it ever reaches the officers.
Supervisors shape the attitudes, habits, and expectations of their people. Young officers especially are impressionable. They often learn what matters, what does not matter, what gets rewarded, what gets ignored, and what “real police work” looks like from their immediate supervisors.
If the supervisor is negative, burned out, dismissive, lazy, or resistant to change, that attitude spreads.
But the opposite is also true.
A strong first-line supervisor can help officers understand the mission, connect daily work to larger goals, ask better questions, encourage smarter tactics, and model a more professional mindset.
That is why any serious effort to change police culture must include first-line supervisors.
Not as an afterthought.
As a priority.
Officers Need Practical Education, Not Just Orders
If we want officers to think differently, we have to teach them differently.
They need realistic, practical education on questions like:
What problems are repeatedly occurring in our community?
Where are they happening?
When are they happening?
Who is involved?
What conditions are driving the problem?
What data do we have?
What are officers seeing that may not be captured in the data?
What technology can help us understand or address the issue?
What partners should be involved?
What environmental factors are contributing to the problem?
What can we do beyond simply responding after the fact?
What does prevention look like in this specific situation?
What is the officer’s role?
Why does it matter?
How does this help the community?
How does this help officers?
That last question is critical.
Officers need to understand that proactive prevention is not just about helping the community, although that is obviously important. It also helps them.
When done properly, proactive problem-solving can reduce repeat calls, reduce victimization, reduce frustration, improve officer safety, create better use of time, and make the job feel more purposeful.
That is a message cops need to hear.
Evidence-Based and Problem-Oriented Policing Cannot Just Be Catchphrases
Evidence-based policing and problem-oriented policing should not be treated as temporary initiatives, grant requirements, academic language, or leadership buzzwords.
They should help shape the mindset of the profession.
That does not mean every officer needs to become a researcher. It does not mean every agency needs a massive crime analysis unit or expensive technology. It does not mean every problem requires a complicated project.
It means officers should be trained to ask better questions.
Instead of only asking, “What happened?” officers should also learn to ask:
Why is this happening?
Why here?
Why now?
Who or what is driving it?
Has this happened before?
What pattern are we missing?
What can we do to reduce the chance that it keeps happening?
That is the mindset shift.
It is not about replacing response. Police will always have to respond. Calls will always come in. Emergencies will always happen.
But the profession cannot live entirely in response mode.
A response-only culture keeps officers busy.
A prevention-minded culture helps officers become more effective.
So How Do We Actually Make This Happen?
The answer cannot be one thing. It has to be layered, repeated, realistic, and sustainable.
Start in the Academy
Evidence-based policing, problem-oriented policing, SARA, crime prevention, data-informed policing, and practical problem-solving should be introduced early.
Not as a dry academic block, but as a core part of what modern policing is.
Recruits should learn from the beginning that good police work is not only about handling calls, making arrests, writing tickets, and clearing complaints. It is also about identifying problems, recognizing patterns, reducing harm, preventing repeat victimization, and improving community safety.
The academy helps build the foundation. If we wait until officers are years into the job, the culture may have already shaped their mindset.
Reinforce It in Field Training
The field training phase is where culture becomes real.
FTOs should be trained to reinforce problem-solving questions during actual calls.
For example:
Have we been to this address before?
Is this part of a bigger pattern?
Who else should know about this?
What should we document so the next officer or investigator understands the issue?
Is there a prevention opportunity here?
This does not need to be complicated. It just needs to become part of how officers are taught to think.
Build It Into First-Line Supervisor Training
Supervisor school should include more than discipline, schedules, evaluations, and liability.
It should teach supervisors how to lead proactive policing.
That includes how to use data in a practical way, how to run meaningful roll-call discussions, how to recognize patterns, how to support officer-led problem-solving, how to coach officers without micromanaging them, and how to hold people accountable without making the process punitive.
First-line supervisors are the bridge between leadership’s vision and officer behavior. If they do not understand the strategy, the officers probably will not either.
Make Roll Call a Place for Problem-Solving
Roll call is one of the most underused training opportunities in policing.
Agencies do not need a full-day class every time they want officers to think differently. Sometimes five to ten minutes can make a difference.
A supervisor or analyst can share a repeat location, a current pattern, a known offender group, a recent spike in calls, a problem address, a specific prevention goal, a partner resource, or a question for officers to pay attention to during their shift.
The key is to make it practical.
Not this:
“We are doing problem-oriented policing.”
Instead:
“We have had six thefts from vehicles in this area over the last two weeks, mostly between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Pay attention to lighting, camera locations, unlocked vehicles, suspicious foot traffic, and whether the same vehicles or people are showing up. Document anything useful and pass it on.”
That is how concepts become real.
Translate Data Into Plain Language
One reason officers resist data-informed policing is because it is often presented in a way that feels disconnected from street work.
Officers do not need to be buried in charts, spreadsheets, dashboards, and academic language.
They need clear answers:
Where should we focus?
When should we be there?
What should we look for?
Who should we be aware of?
What is driving the problem?
What are we trying to prevent?
What should we document?
Who needs the information?
Data should support decision-making, not overwhelm officers.
Show Officers How It Helps Them
This may be one of the most important pieces.
If proactive policing is presented only as something officers have to do for leadership, the community, the grant, or the latest initiative, buy-in will be limited.
Officers need to see how it helps them.
For example, proactive problem-solving can mean fewer repeat calls to the same address, better information before they arrive, less frustration from dealing with the same unresolved problems, better officer safety, stronger cases, better use of limited staffing, and more meaningful work.
When officers understand that prevention can make their job safer, smarter, and more effective, they are more likely to care.
Reward Problem-Solving, Not Just Activity
Police culture often rewards visible activity: arrests, tickets, stops, calls handled, reports written.
Those things may matter, but they do not always show impact.
If an officer helps solve a recurring problem and calls for service go down, that should be recognized.
If a supervisor identifies a pattern and coordinates a response that prevents further harm, that should be recognized.
If an officer documents important information that helps connect a larger issue, that should be recognized.
If an agency says prevention matters but only rewards traditional enforcement numbers, the culture will not change.
Accountability should include effort, thoughtfulness, documentation, communication, and impact.
Make Accountability Supportive, Not Punitive
Officers should be held accountable, but accountability cannot feel like punishment for failing to embrace the latest initiative.
The goal should be coaching and improvement.
Instead of saying:
“You are not doing proactive policing.”
A supervisor can ask:
What problem are you seeing on your shift?
What locations are becoming repeat issues?
What do you think is driving this?
What information do you need?
Who else should be involved?
What is one thing we can try?
That creates ownership.
Cops are more likely to buy in when they feel they are part of the solution, not just being ordered to carry out someone else’s idea.
Build Internal Champions
Not every officer will buy in right away. Some never will.
But agencies do not need everyone at once.
They need credible internal champions.
These are the officers, supervisors, analysts, and command staff who understand the value and can explain it in a way others respect.
The best champions are often not the loudest people in the room. They are the credible ones. The ones who have done the job. The ones who understand the street. The ones who can say, “This actually works, and here’s why.”
Culture changes faster when the message comes from people officers trust.
Make It Sustainable
This cannot depend on one chief, one grant, one analyst, one motivated sergeant, or one outside consultant.
If the work disappears when one person leaves, it was never truly embedded.
That is why it has to be built into academy training, field training, supervisor school, in-service training, roll call, crime meetings, performance expectations, promotional processes, agency policies, daily conversations, and leadership development.
The goal is not to create a temporary program.
The goal is to create a professional mindset.
The Bigger Point
The question is not whether cops have a hard job. They do.
The question is not whether agencies have limited resources. They do.
The question is not whether change is difficult. It is.
The real question is this:
Are we willing to keep doing the job the same way simply because the job is hard, or are we willing to teach officers how to work smarter within the reality they already face?
That is where practical, realistic, proactive policing matters.
Evidence-based policing and problem-oriented policing should not live only in academic journals, executive meetings, or conference presentations. They need to reach the patrol officer, the investigator, the first-line supervisor, the analyst, and the field training officer.
They need to be explained in plain language.
They need to be connected to real problems.
They need to be realistic for agencies of different sizes and capabilities.
They need to make sense to the people doing the work.
And most importantly, they need to become part of the culture before the next crisis forces change upon the profession.
Closing Thought
The future of policing will not be improved by simply telling officers to “be proactive.” It will improve when we teach them what that actually means, why it matters, how to do it, and how it can make their jobs and their communities safer.
That requires leadership, supervision, training, accountability, and culture change from the top down, from the bottom up, and from the very beginning of a police officer's career.
