Page 40 |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 40 of 223 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large (1000x1000 max)
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
|
28
Enforcement 1931, 148; Walker 1998, 155). The Wickersham Commission Report
contains graphic details of common police techniques used in the early part of the
20th century. For example, police dangled a suspect out of a window in order to
extract a confession (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement
1931; Walker 1998, 155; Walker 1999, 32). In Cleveland, police repeatedly raised
an unclothed suspect by his genitals, while in Denver police forced another suspect
to sit beside a victim’s corpse, all with the intent to coerce incriminating statements
from the suspects (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931,
118, 141-142; Walker 1998, 155; Walker 1999, 32).
As the Wickersham Commission Report illustrates, reformers faced
formidable obstacles in changing police practices in what could be described as a
Wild West mentality of police departments in the early 1900s. Cloaked with the
imprimatur of authority, both actual and perceived, individual officers often meted
out vigilante justice. Although the reform agenda sought to rectify this maverick
mentality, through centralization of police authority, greater supervision (aided by
two-way radios) and specialized units, policing tactics in the decades following the
Wickersham Commission Report were fraught with problems. These problems came
to a head in the 1960s, when overly aggressive police officers frequently confronted
civil rights and anti-war activists in bloody and increasingly publicized clashes
(Kelling and Moore 1991, 16; Walker 1999, 34). Kelling and Moore note that, as a
result of these clashes, “The legitimacy of police was questioned: students resisted
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 40 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 28 Enforcement 1931, 148; Walker 1998, 155). The Wickersham Commission Report contains graphic details of common police techniques used in the early part of the 20th century. For example, police dangled a suspect out of a window in order to extract a confession (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931; Walker 1998, 155; Walker 1999, 32). In Cleveland, police repeatedly raised an unclothed suspect by his genitals, while in Denver police forced another suspect to sit beside a victim’s corpse, all with the intent to coerce incriminating statements from the suspects (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931, 118, 141-142; Walker 1998, 155; Walker 1999, 32). As the Wickersham Commission Report illustrates, reformers faced formidable obstacles in changing police practices in what could be described as a Wild West mentality of police departments in the early 1900s. Cloaked with the imprimatur of authority, both actual and perceived, individual officers often meted out vigilante justice. Although the reform agenda sought to rectify this maverick mentality, through centralization of police authority, greater supervision (aided by two-way radios) and specialized units, policing tactics in the decades following the Wickersham Commission Report were fraught with problems. These problems came to a head in the 1960s, when overly aggressive police officers frequently confronted civil rights and anti-war activists in bloody and increasingly publicized clashes (Kelling and Moore 1991, 16; Walker 1999, 34). Kelling and Moore note that, as a result of these clashes, “The legitimacy of police was questioned: students resisted |
