new troopers to replace the 72 veteran troopers that the agency selected to become POPS troopers. These troopers received 2 weeks of training in the POPS philosophy. Between July 1998 and August 2000, the WSP deployed these troopers throughout the state to initiate POPS projects that focus on priorities established in the strategic plan and to involve their peers in problem-solving efforts. This strategy eventually will result in all troopers receiving training in POPS, achieving WSP’s goal of evolving from a split force model (having specialized POPS troopers) to a total integration model (where problem solving becomes a way of doing business for all officers) by the end of 2003.

3 The integration effort began in 1997, with the goal of total integration by 2003.

4 Herman Goldstein, Problem-Oriented Policing (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1990).

5 Dick Grote, “Public Sector Organizations: Today’s Innovative Leaders in Performance Management,” Public Personnel Management 29, no. 1 (spring 2000).

6 The WSP has approximately 1,000 commissioned officers statewide.

7 Although the WSP’s primary mission is traffic law enforcement, it also functions in other public safety areas, including investigative, technical, forensic, and fire services.

8 The WSP covers eight geographic districts within the state. Each district has several autonomous patrol areas that describe each detachment’s work area or unit.

9 One of the ways the WSP is encouraging its employees to accept the POPS philosophy involves teaching them how the SARA (scanning, analysis, response, assessment) problem-solving model also achieves their need to measure outcome performances developed during the strategic planning process. The
response phase in SARA represents the effort of their action plans, or outputs, while the assessment phase measures the outcome of their efforts (something the WSP traditionally has not measured).

10 The WSP is developing information systems to give supervisors/managers the ability to access real-time data, as well as officer activity data, by location and time of day.

11 The author first observed NYPD’s CompStat Management model while attending the FBI National Academy in 1999 and further studied the approach during a conference in New York City later that year.

12 The WSP is organized into five bureaus:
Field Operations, Investigative Services, Technical Services, Fire Protection, and Forensic Services Laboratory Bureau.