Page 85 |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 85 of 223 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large (1000x1000 max)
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
|
73
department. This translated into a hands-off style of management that created an
environment lacking oversight and accountability. City Manager John Holmes37
worried that the department was “becoming a loosely-controlled organization” (6).
Thacher also described how the RPD’s leadership and City officials were
under fire from inside and outside the police department. The police union had voted
no confidence in the Police Chief and the Deputy Chief, and the reputation of the
RPD was badly damaged in the community. As evidenced by Thacher’s study, even
before the Miller shooting the minority community viewed the RPD as disrespectful.
The media regularly reported on allegations of police misconduct, including
incidents of harassment and brutality (6). Ken Fortier, the Riverside Police Chief
from 1993 to 1997, put it bluntly, “The relationship with the minority community
was miserable, especially the Hispanic community” (10). In one case, an effort to
mend the relationship between Latino residents in the Casa Blanca community and
the RPD disintegrated when a prominent community group refused to talk to the
RPD (6).
A 1992 management audit of the RPD commissioned by the City Manager
and conducted by the consulting firm Ralph Andersen and Associates also foretold
problems the department would continue to experience years later. The audit
described a police department lacking fundamental management systems. Although
the report was not entirely critical of the RPD and most of the document was written
37 John Holmes served as Riverside City Manager from 1990 through 2001. He was City Manager at
the time of the Tyisha Miller shooting and during the investigation and consent decree negotiations.
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 85 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 73 department. This translated into a hands-off style of management that created an environment lacking oversight and accountability. City Manager John Holmes37 worried that the department was “becoming a loosely-controlled organization” (6). Thacher also described how the RPD’s leadership and City officials were under fire from inside and outside the police department. The police union had voted no confidence in the Police Chief and the Deputy Chief, and the reputation of the RPD was badly damaged in the community. As evidenced by Thacher’s study, even before the Miller shooting the minority community viewed the RPD as disrespectful. The media regularly reported on allegations of police misconduct, including incidents of harassment and brutality (6). Ken Fortier, the Riverside Police Chief from 1993 to 1997, put it bluntly, “The relationship with the minority community was miserable, especially the Hispanic community” (10). In one case, an effort to mend the relationship between Latino residents in the Casa Blanca community and the RPD disintegrated when a prominent community group refused to talk to the RPD (6). A 1992 management audit of the RPD commissioned by the City Manager and conducted by the consulting firm Ralph Andersen and Associates also foretold problems the department would continue to experience years later. The audit described a police department lacking fundamental management systems. Although the report was not entirely critical of the RPD and most of the document was written 37 John Holmes served as Riverside City Manager from 1990 through 2001. He was City Manager at the time of the Tyisha Miller shooting and during the investigation and consent decree negotiations. |
