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36
Safety” (1982) by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. In “Improving Police,”
Goldstein argues that police departments get caught up in the “means over ends
syndrome” (236), the pursuit of more efficient administration, better equipment, and
higher quality staff, to the detriment of the more important concern of outcomes
(Goldstein 1979, 236, 238).
Outcomes are not broad categories of crimes, but specific problems that the
community wants police to address: neighborhood graffiti, cars speeding near a local
elementary school, vacant houses being used by drug dealers, or public intoxication
on the beach (Goldstein 1979, 242; Walker 1999, 157-158). Goldstein maintains that
police should proactively attack these distinct problems by creating targeted
strategies to address each problem rather than just reacting to calls for service
(Goldstein 1979). As Walker observes, Goldstein and other experts argue that law
enforcement should practice problem-oriented policing to anticipate future citizen
policing needs and to “escape the tyranny” of their 911 systems (Goldstein 1979,
237; Walker 1999, 158; Sparrow et al. 1990, 104-108).
In “Broken Windows,” Wilson and Kelling explain the limitations of the
crime-fighting model of policing and urge a reorientation toward an order
maintenance model. The symbol of broken windows is used to represent how a
community breaks down when neighborhood problems are neglected. “[O]ne
unrepaired window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows
costs nothing” (Wilson and Kelling 1982, par. 11, *2 of 9). As a neighborhood
Enforcement and Administration of Justice. He further developed his ideas on the problem-oriented
approach in Problem-Oriented Policing (1990).
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 48 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 36 Safety” (1982) by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. In “Improving Police,” Goldstein argues that police departments get caught up in the “means over ends syndrome” (236), the pursuit of more efficient administration, better equipment, and higher quality staff, to the detriment of the more important concern of outcomes (Goldstein 1979, 236, 238). Outcomes are not broad categories of crimes, but specific problems that the community wants police to address: neighborhood graffiti, cars speeding near a local elementary school, vacant houses being used by drug dealers, or public intoxication on the beach (Goldstein 1979, 242; Walker 1999, 157-158). Goldstein maintains that police should proactively attack these distinct problems by creating targeted strategies to address each problem rather than just reacting to calls for service (Goldstein 1979). As Walker observes, Goldstein and other experts argue that law enforcement should practice problem-oriented policing to anticipate future citizen policing needs and to “escape the tyranny” of their 911 systems (Goldstein 1979, 237; Walker 1999, 158; Sparrow et al. 1990, 104-108). In “Broken Windows,” Wilson and Kelling explain the limitations of the crime-fighting model of policing and urge a reorientation toward an order maintenance model. The symbol of broken windows is used to represent how a community breaks down when neighborhood problems are neglected. “[O]ne unrepaired window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing” (Wilson and Kelling 1982, par. 11, *2 of 9). As a neighborhood Enforcement and Administration of Justice. He further developed his ideas on the problem-oriented approach in Problem-Oriented Policing (1990). |
