The Limits of Police Reform: Problem Oriented Policing in Newport News

• In Event: Policing through the Lens of American Political Development

Abstract

I discuss the case of the first department-wide implementation of “problem-oriented policing” in Newport News, Virginia. Despite the rhetoric which at times sounds similar to some language used by police abolitionists, problem-oriented policing shows, in this case, to have nevertheless been part of the same order-maintenance framework of policing as other similar reforms like community oriented policing. Likewise, problem-oriented policing in Newport News appears to have influenced policing tactics in the following eras such as stop-and-frisk in New York. By situating this case in its historical context, and later engaging in interviews with locals, I expect to show how the case of this reform exhibits the limitations in the capacity of police reforms in terms of addressing the injustices embedded into the carceral state.

Author

• Jasante Howard, Princeton University