Even some of the cops get confused by bump-outs and POP-tarts.

As the anonymous newspaper reader comments already show, this is a particularly controversial topic in a city with no shortage of them.

When the POP program first was announced, I had mixed feelings. The idea struck me as progressive and useful -- well nigh retro -- but within a fixed context.

On the other hand, the fact that POP was being implemented in a neighborhood where, comparatively speaking, crime always seemed less of an issue than elsewhere in town (the school is a couple of blocks away from my house) just seemed to heap even more personal disgust at the pervasive cronyism running rampant during the dying days of the third England administration, where it was all fluff, no cattle.

Now what? Who knows?

POP goes the program: Problem Oriented Policing method out in New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — Instead of concentrating efforts on one neighborhood, New Albany police are now spreading out to better patrol the entire city, NAPD Assistant Chief Greg Pennell said Monday.

Speaking during the New Albany NAACP’s monthly meeting, Pennell said the new police administration’s policy is to implement patrols evenly throughout the city instead of concentrating primarily on one neighborhood.

The position is in contrast to former NAPD Chief Todd Bailey’s Problem Oriented Policing, or POP, plan. Under POP, the department focused a majority of its patrols in the S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood, which was cited by the former administration as a high-crime area.

Beyond patrols, the POP program targeted crimes related to narcotics, gangs and burglaries.

At the same time POP was implemented in SEJ, the area was being re-branded as Midtown led by the $6.7 million federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Bailey touted POP as successfully reducing crime in SEJ, though some city officials questioned the strategy citing lack of patrols in other parts of the city.

Before Bailey was replaced by Mayor Jeff Gahan this year with Chief Sherri Knight, the POP program had been shifted to the Broadmeade neighborhood.