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45
implement these strategies and shatter old mental models of policing. Although
innovation in tradition-bound police departments is challenging, there is abundant
evidence that community and problem-oriented policing is possible under committed
leadership.
Curtailing Officer Discretion: Responding to Police Misconduct
In addition to community policing and the unionization of police
departments, reform efforts in the aftermath of the turbulent 1960s included efforts to
“control on-the-street police behavior” (Walker 1999, 37). As Walker notes, these
efforts were motivated by Supreme Court decisions curtailing police tactics that
violated the Constitution, the wave of civil rights protests that rocked the 1960s, and
lawsuits stemming from police misconduct. The increasing coverage of police by
the media, particularly in exposing police misconduct, also forced the public and
their leaders to respond to police malfeasance. Changes in use-of-force policies, as
well as Supreme Court decisions redefining what force was permissible, significantly
curtailed an officer’s discretion in his or her daily activities (Walker 1999, 37-38).
The control of discretion is significant because, as Wilson observed in Varieties of
Police Behavior, “formally, the police are supposed to have almost no discretion,”
but in reality “discretion is inevitable” (1968, 7). In fact, Wilson notes that “the
lowest-ranking police officer – the patrolman – has the greatest discretion and thus
his behavior is of greatest concern to the police administration” (Wilson 1968, 8).
Unchecked officer discretion can have deadly consequences, not just for
people subject to police force, but also for the police officers. Given the potential for
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 57 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 45 implement these strategies and shatter old mental models of policing. Although innovation in tradition-bound police departments is challenging, there is abundant evidence that community and problem-oriented policing is possible under committed leadership. Curtailing Officer Discretion: Responding to Police Misconduct In addition to community policing and the unionization of police departments, reform efforts in the aftermath of the turbulent 1960s included efforts to “control on-the-street police behavior” (Walker 1999, 37). As Walker notes, these efforts were motivated by Supreme Court decisions curtailing police tactics that violated the Constitution, the wave of civil rights protests that rocked the 1960s, and lawsuits stemming from police misconduct. The increasing coverage of police by the media, particularly in exposing police misconduct, also forced the public and their leaders to respond to police malfeasance. Changes in use-of-force policies, as well as Supreme Court decisions redefining what force was permissible, significantly curtailed an officer’s discretion in his or her daily activities (Walker 1999, 37-38). The control of discretion is significant because, as Wilson observed in Varieties of Police Behavior, “formally, the police are supposed to have almost no discretion,” but in reality “discretion is inevitable” (1968, 7). In fact, Wilson notes that “the lowest-ranking police officer – the patrolman – has the greatest discretion and thus his behavior is of greatest concern to the police administration” (Wilson 1968, 8). Unchecked officer discretion can have deadly consequences, not just for people subject to police force, but also for the police officers. Given the potential for |
