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91
a “blue flu” wildcat strike, punctuating the antagonistic relations between the union
and the Chief (Thacher 1998, 43-46). Fortier and his family were also personally
threatened and harassed.50 Some city officials did not support him and he was forced
to resign.51
Riverside City Manager John Holmes explained the objective for hiring the
reform-minded Fortier in 1993. The City had commissioned a comprehensive
management audit of the RPD that revealed serious shortcomings in the department
(Ralph Anderson and Associates 1992). Holmes declared the RPD needed to
develop into a “modern, professional police department” which utilized “modern
technology and crime analysis” and exhibited “excellent standards of conduct,
professionalism, a community-based policing approach, and [a system for] taking
citizen complaints seriously” (Thacher 1998, 7). Holmes’ views of the RPD in 1993
were equally descriptive of the RPD in 2001. Almost a decade had passed and the
promise of reform had failed.
In February 2001, after extensive negotiations had resulted in a package of
reforms to be included in an agreement, no resolution on a consent decree had been
reached. There was general consensus on the particulars to include in the agreement,
50 The harassment included the message “187” being repeatedly sent to his pager. The 187 referred to
Penal Code section 187, “the unlawful killing of a human being . . . with malice aforethought.”
Fortier and his wife received phone calls that included harassment and threats. Callers told his wife
that they knew where she was and where she parked her car. They asked her if she knew that her
husband was with another woman and that he is “screwing some gal.” Fortier found nails in his tires
and a small explosive was detonated on the front door of his home. Fortier received information that
an RPD officer told a doctor he was going to kill him (Ichinaga 2000, 9-10).
51 Fortier developed stress related medical problems and filed a worker’s compensation claim that was
settled by the City (Ichinaga 2000, 10; Thacher 1998, 45).
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 103 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 91 a “blue flu” wildcat strike, punctuating the antagonistic relations between the union and the Chief (Thacher 1998, 43-46). Fortier and his family were also personally threatened and harassed.50 Some city officials did not support him and he was forced to resign.51 Riverside City Manager John Holmes explained the objective for hiring the reform-minded Fortier in 1993. The City had commissioned a comprehensive management audit of the RPD that revealed serious shortcomings in the department (Ralph Anderson and Associates 1992). Holmes declared the RPD needed to develop into a “modern, professional police department” which utilized “modern technology and crime analysis” and exhibited “excellent standards of conduct, professionalism, a community-based policing approach, and [a system for] taking citizen complaints seriously” (Thacher 1998, 7). Holmes’ views of the RPD in 1993 were equally descriptive of the RPD in 2001. Almost a decade had passed and the promise of reform had failed. In February 2001, after extensive negotiations had resulted in a package of reforms to be included in an agreement, no resolution on a consent decree had been reached. There was general consensus on the particulars to include in the agreement, 50 The harassment included the message “187” being repeatedly sent to his pager. The 187 referred to Penal Code section 187, “the unlawful killing of a human being . . . with malice aforethought.” Fortier and his wife received phone calls that included harassment and threats. Callers told his wife that they knew where she was and where she parked her car. They asked her if she knew that her husband was with another woman and that he is “screwing some gal.” Fortier found nails in his tires and a small explosive was detonated on the front door of his home. Fortier received information that an RPD officer told a doctor he was going to kill him (Ichinaga 2000, 9-10). 51 Fortier developed stress related medical problems and filed a worker’s compensation claim that was settled by the City (Ichinaga 2000, 10; Thacher 1998, 45). |
