Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Problem Solving PROCTOR

PROblem, Cause, Tactic or Treatment, Output and Result (PROCTOR) is an acronym devised to enhance the SARA model by emphasising the importance of analysis throughout the problem solving process, not just in the second phase. There is also a need to distinguish between outputs and results. It seems unlikely that PROCTOR will take over from SARA given its already widespread use within the police service, but it is described here for reference.

PROCTOR was first introduced in a Home Office report Not Rocket Science? Problem-solving and crime reduction ( PDF 184 Kb), published in 2000. This report examined problem-solving in crime reduction through questionnaires and interviews with police forces in England and Wales. Although the problem-solving initiatives were sourced from the police, they were not all police-only initiatives.  Two examples of successful problem-solving initiatives are given below.

Scanning	Analysis	Response	Assessment
Problem	Cause	Tactic/Treatment	Output	Result claimed
Accidental drug-related deaths involving methadone	Leakage of prescribed methadone into the illicit drugs market	Pressure on doctors to agree changed prescribing practices; incentives to pharmacies to provide supervised daily methadone taking. Monitoring of prescription practices and reminders to those prescribing inappropriately	Reduced overall prescription of methadone, especially the tablets most associated with deaths, increased daily prescriptions, increased provision for supervised drug taking in pharmacies	Reduction from 1996 high and then elimination from 1999 of drug-related deaths involving methadone.
Disorder late at night at pizza parlours	Irritation of waiting whilst pizzas cooked: those waiting under the influence of alcohol	Enable customers to avoid waiting around to collect their orders after closing time when disturbances are apt to take place	Pizza parlours install direct lines from pubs to pizza parlours for customers to make orders	Reduced late night fast food pizza parlour troubles.

From: Examples of ‘successful’ problem-solving, page 12 in Not Rocket Science? Problem-solving and crime reduction

The report identifies many sources of problem-solving failure amongst which include:

Weaknesses in identifying the problem

• Failure to check that a nationally identified problem exists locally

• Failure to check out systematically that perceptions that problems exist are accurate

• Failure to check scale of problem

Weaknesses in analysis of the problem

• Acceptance of definition of problem at face value

• Use of only very short-term data

• Failure to examine the genesis of problems

Weaknesses in working out what to do

• Short term focus

• Failure to read relevant literature

• Picking the solution prior to or in spite of analysis

• Failure to plan how the measures could in practice be made operational

• Failure to think through the mechanisms by which the measure could have its impact

• Failure to think through needs for sustained reduction, specifically failure to consolidate following crackdown

Weaknesses in work with partners

• Failure to fully involve partners

• Insensitivity to others’ agendas, styles, constraints or ideologies

Weaknesses in implementation

• Narrow (normally offender) focused response

Weaknesses in lessons drawn from previous experience

• Shortage of good evaluations

• Uncritical transfer of responses used elsewhere

Problem-solving checklist

Even those who have adopted a problem-solving approach need to constantly look at current working practices to ensure the most benefits are gained from this process. As part of their examination of problem-solving initiatives in crime reduction, the authors of Not Rocket Science? put together a checklist that can be used to identify points for improvement.  Click here to view the checklist.

Getting a copy of the report

Not Rocket Science? Problem-solving and crime reduction by Tim Read and Nick Tilley is Paper 6 in the Home Office Crime Reduction Research Series.  It was published in 2000 and is available electronically at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/prgpdfs/crrs06.pdf  PDF 184 Kb

Last update: 27/08/03