Implementation issues with hot spot policing

Although the science behind hot spot policing is robust and grounded in theory, implementation issues prevent it from becoming commonplace in everyday policing. The mounting evidence suggests that “hot spot policing” (Sherman and Weisburd 1995) is rarely applied in police routines. The paper critically discusses three common problems with the implementation of this approach into policy: officers' motivation, organisational resistance, and technological failures. Two competing solutions are proposed to these endemic issues: instituting specialised hot spot policing units or outsourcing the job of ‘cooling down’ hot spots to alternative non-police entities, partially or wholly.