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86
The City initially expressed shock and surprise at the message the team
delivered. However, City officials agreed to meet again to discuss the AG’s offer to
settle the investigation with the City by consent decree rather than litigation. In the
interim, in late September 2000, Russ Leach was sworn in as the City’s new Police
Chief. This was a crucial turning point in the relationship between the City and State
officials. Since early 2000, Interim Police Chief Robert Luman, a well-respected
retired Long Beach police chief, had led the RPD. He served as a transitional
manager while the City conducted a national search for the next police chief.
Russ Leach had been the Police Chief of El Paso, Texas, where he received
glowing reviews. An editorial in the El Paso Times titled, “Leach’s Legacy, Police
Chief’s Progress, Success Must Continue,” began with this line: “Police Chief Russ
Leach’s legacy is an enviable one that will go something like this: He did everything
right. . . .” (10A). The editorial added, “His eminently successful community-policing
policy has helped El Paso earn recognition as the nation's third-safest major
city. . . . In short, Leach has been a powerfully effective police chief for El Paso, the
person we needed, arriving at the precise time he was needed” (10A). After his
swearing in, Leach took an immediate hands-on approach towards negotiations with
the Attorney General’s Office. His involvement in these negotiations was critical in
moving the process forward to a settlement.
In November 2000, the City and State met to discuss a settlement. A team
that included Mayor Ron Loveridge, City Councilmembers Ameal Moore and Joy
Deffenbaugh, City Attorney Stan Yamamoto, Deputy City Attorney Greg Priamos,
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 98 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 86 The City initially expressed shock and surprise at the message the team delivered. However, City officials agreed to meet again to discuss the AG’s offer to settle the investigation with the City by consent decree rather than litigation. In the interim, in late September 2000, Russ Leach was sworn in as the City’s new Police Chief. This was a crucial turning point in the relationship between the City and State officials. Since early 2000, Interim Police Chief Robert Luman, a well-respected retired Long Beach police chief, had led the RPD. He served as a transitional manager while the City conducted a national search for the next police chief. Russ Leach had been the Police Chief of El Paso, Texas, where he received glowing reviews. An editorial in the El Paso Times titled, “Leach’s Legacy, Police Chief’s Progress, Success Must Continue,” began with this line: “Police Chief Russ Leach’s legacy is an enviable one that will go something like this: He did everything right. . . .” (10A). The editorial added, “His eminently successful community-policing policy has helped El Paso earn recognition as the nation's third-safest major city. . . . In short, Leach has been a powerfully effective police chief for El Paso, the person we needed, arriving at the precise time he was needed” (10A). After his swearing in, Leach took an immediate hands-on approach towards negotiations with the Attorney General’s Office. His involvement in these negotiations was critical in moving the process forward to a settlement. In November 2000, the City and State met to discuss a settlement. A team that included Mayor Ron Loveridge, City Councilmembers Ameal Moore and Joy Deffenbaugh, City Attorney Stan Yamamoto, Deputy City Attorney Greg Priamos, |
