What is reactive police work?

Reactive policing is where police officers would sit in their station and wait for the call from a member of the public summoning them to the scene of a crime. They would proceed to investigate and try to 'solve' the incident.

It is considered a better practice to do proactive policing. This is actually being out on the beat, looking for issues, getting to know the community, and preventing the incident from occurring in the first place.