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27 criminals from committing crimes (1991, 13-14). Preventive patrol would become one of the most controversial policing strategies in the 1960s, even though its effectiveness would be questioned in the 1970s. Although there were many technological and managerial innovations during the reform era that were designed to make police more efficient, police behavior was still subject to criticism. The blue-ribbon National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (also known as the Wickersham Commission) released its Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement in 1931, the first national-level analysis critical of police brutality (Walker 1999, 32). Spearheaded by Vollmer, the report, one of fourteen issued by the Commission, was a blistering condemnation of police abuse, complete with vivid details of brutality by police (Walker 1999, 28, 32). Among its findings, officers regularly abused suspects physically and mentally (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931, 3-4; Walker 1999, 32). The report found that the use of the “third degree,” defined as “the use of physical brutality, or other forms of cruelty, to obtain involuntary confessions or admissions—is widespread” (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931, 4). The report included numerous graphic examples of police misconduct in cities throughout the country. The report noted that “Street beating or beating in the patrol wagon is said in San Francisco not to be disconnected from the third-degree practices; its effect is to give the arrested person a foretaste of what is to come if he does not incriminate himself” (National Commission on Law Observance and
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 39 |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
Full text | 27 criminals from committing crimes (1991, 13-14). Preventive patrol would become one of the most controversial policing strategies in the 1960s, even though its effectiveness would be questioned in the 1970s. Although there were many technological and managerial innovations during the reform era that were designed to make police more efficient, police behavior was still subject to criticism. The blue-ribbon National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (also known as the Wickersham Commission) released its Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement in 1931, the first national-level analysis critical of police brutality (Walker 1999, 32). Spearheaded by Vollmer, the report, one of fourteen issued by the Commission, was a blistering condemnation of police abuse, complete with vivid details of brutality by police (Walker 1999, 28, 32). Among its findings, officers regularly abused suspects physically and mentally (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931, 3-4; Walker 1999, 32). The report found that the use of the “third degree,” defined as “the use of physical brutality, or other forms of cruelty, to obtain involuntary confessions or admissions—is widespread” (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931, 4). The report included numerous graphic examples of police misconduct in cities throughout the country. The report noted that “Street beating or beating in the patrol wagon is said in San Francisco not to be disconnected from the third-degree practices; its effect is to give the arrested person a foretaste of what is to come if he does not incriminate himself” (National Commission on Law Observance and |