Back at the POP conference

I'm traveling today, with some airport time to blog. Last year, I wrote a few posts about my first experience at the annual Problem-Oriented Policing Conference. I'm back at this year's conference, in Bellevue, Washington. The POP Center has brought me here to present two sessions, Mainstreaming Problem-Oriented Policing, and Problem-Oriented Policing in Mid-Sized Cities.

I wrapped up my assignment yesterday afternoon, and I also had the chance to attend some other sessions. As with most conferences, though, some of the best stuff was on the breaks and after the sessions. I had the opportunity to meet and speak with several other chiefs from Dayton, OH, Lee's Summit, MO, and Port Washington, WI. The host chief, Bellevue's Linda Pillo, is a member of my Benchmark City Chiefs group. I particularly enjoyed chatting with St. Paul Minnesota police chief John Harrington. He's just completed a rather significant challenge for a municipal police department. We've had very similar careers in cities that also have a lot of similarities.

One of the presenters, Chris Bruce from Danvers, Mass., featured The Chief's Corner in one of his slides during his presentation, Reporting to the Community about Problem-Solving Efforts. Several attendees told me that they read this blog from time to time. Dr. Brandon Kooi and Dr. Gary Cordner have both been picking my electronic brain and apparently finding some of my rambling useful in their educational settings.

Highlight of the conference for me was a presentation Tuesday by John Campbell, Better Solutions for Crime Reduction in Public and Subsidized Housing. His theme was essentially echoed a few past posts I've made in the Chief's Corner. It reaffirmed my belief that getting place managers engaged is a key to effective crime and disorder control strategies.