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11
police accountability and improved policing (62-63). The study provides a useful
account of what other localities can learn from the Pittsburgh experience. Since
there are at least 24 other police departments with some form of federal or state
intervention, and which have the benefit of the Pittsburgh assessment, it is critical
that further evaluation take place. In fact, the federal consent decree in Pittsburgh
was the first by a federal or state department of justice. The Pittsburgh decree was
dissolved in 2002, and the Vera study was published in 2002.
A multi-layered analysis of more consent decree reform efforts would be
illuminating and instructive, particularly of police departments with different
characteristics and an alternative configuration of settlement participants. Much of
the research on policing in the United States is conducted in large police
departments, while relatively little research focuses on medium and small police
agencies despite the fact that most law enforcement agencies are not large (Walker
1999, 53). At the start of the Pittsburgh Police Bureau’s consent decree, the agency
had over 1,000 police officers. The smaller Riverside Police Department, which is
the subject of this study, had a little more than 300 officers when the agency began
its consent decree compliance.
This research is an effort at assessing new modes of improving policing in the
United States. I evaluate the efficacy of institutional reform litigation, initiated by
prosecutorial agencies, on rehabilitating police departments and enhancing police
accountability. Specifically, this study will examine the efficacy of the State of
California-initiated intervention into the police department in the City of Riverside.
Object Description
| Title | Policing accountability: an empirical investigation of state-sponsored police reform in Riverside, California |
| Author | Gomez, Jose Adolfo |
| Author email | jagclash@yahoo.com; jgomez@treasurer.ca.gov |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Political Science |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-01 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 13 Oct. 2010. |
| Date published | 2010-10-13 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Renteln, Alison Dundes |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Newland, Chester A. Wong, Janelle S. |
| Abstract | The police have the ability to detain, arrest, and use force when necessary. Police accountability is thus of paramount concern to the public. Numerous examples of police misconduct, including cases of excessive force, brutality, and corruption, appear regularly via the news media. These incidents often evidence systemic organizational problems in law enforcement agencies. Scholars have observed that attempts at police reform have placed too much emphasis on individuals behaving badly, rather than on the systemic problems of the police department.; Beginning in the second half of the 1990s, federal and state Attorneys General began employing institutional reform litigation, in the form of consent decrees, to reform law enforcement agencies and enhance police accountability. The consent decrees were crafted to address systemic organizational dysfunction in local police departments. The United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) conducted most of these reform interventions. However, a notable exception was the settlement agreement between the Attorney General of the State of California and the City of Riverside, California.; There has been little research on the efficacy of these efforts to rehabilitate law enforcement agencies. This analysis is a case study of the effectiveness of the institutional reform intervention by the California Attorney General into the Riverside Police Department (RPD). The detailed examination revealed that the intervention produced constructive changes in the way the RPD conducts its business. The RPD became more professional, effective, transparent and accountable as it implemented the provisions of the consent decree, demonstrating that institutional reform litigation can result in meaningful police reform. The shadow of the law was ever present, encouraging an ethos of cooperation and exerting pressure for meaningful organizational change. The Riverside experience suggests that a facilitative oversight style produces constructive collaboration between the parties, improving the likelihood of durable police reform. Moreover, consent decrees to correct systemic police misconduct should not be the exclusive purview of the USDOJ. State Attorneys General can effectively initiate police reform and in some cases state intervention is a more appropriate alternative. |
| Keyword | institutional reform; police reform; police accountability; state attorney's general; police misconduct; organizational change; consent decrees |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Riverside |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Coverage date | 1993/2008 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1664 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Gomez, Jose Adolfo |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Gomez-2358 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume29/etd-Gomez-2358.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 23 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 11 police accountability and improved policing (62-63). The study provides a useful account of what other localities can learn from the Pittsburgh experience. Since there are at least 24 other police departments with some form of federal or state intervention, and which have the benefit of the Pittsburgh assessment, it is critical that further evaluation take place. In fact, the federal consent decree in Pittsburgh was the first by a federal or state department of justice. The Pittsburgh decree was dissolved in 2002, and the Vera study was published in 2002. A multi-layered analysis of more consent decree reform efforts would be illuminating and instructive, particularly of police departments with different characteristics and an alternative configuration of settlement participants. Much of the research on policing in the United States is conducted in large police departments, while relatively little research focuses on medium and small police agencies despite the fact that most law enforcement agencies are not large (Walker 1999, 53). At the start of the Pittsburgh Police Bureau’s consent decree, the agency had over 1,000 police officers. The smaller Riverside Police Department, which is the subject of this study, had a little more than 300 officers when the agency began its consent decree compliance. This research is an effort at assessing new modes of improving policing in the United States. I evaluate the efficacy of institutional reform litigation, initiated by prosecutorial agencies, on rehabilitating police departments and enhancing police accountability. Specifically, this study will examine the efficacy of the State of California-initiated intervention into the police department in the City of Riverside. |
