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118 cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity in hiring, personnel evaluations, and promotions (People v Riverside 2001). Lastly, the judgment called for the purchase of audio and video recorders, and the implementation of an early warning/intervention system. The RPD was required to equip all field officers and supervisors with audio recorders, which had to be turned on when they engaged members of the public, such as during a traffic stop or when responding to a call. The agreement also called for the purchase and installation of ten video cameras on police vehicles, and for the RPD to make a good faith effort to secure an additional 25 or more cameras. In addition, the judgment called for the triggering of the early intervention system whenever two reportable incidents were documented during a 12-month period (People v Riverside 2001). The RPD complied with all of the accountability provisions within the consent decree. Below, I point out several categories where the department made noteworthy strides. Roll Call Monitoring The roll call monitoring provision was deemed an innovative tool to enhance accountability. Indeed, after reviewing the consent decree, policing expert Erwin Chemerinsky had commented that using video cameras to observe roll calls was unconventional. Executive Director of the Southern California ACLU, Ramona Ripson, found that “having video cameras at roll calls is particularly interesting because police departments have long been male-dominated and loathe to accept women and minorities” (O’Neill Hill and Pitchford 2001b, B1). She added, “It
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 130 |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
Full text | 118 cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity in hiring, personnel evaluations, and promotions (People v Riverside 2001). Lastly, the judgment called for the purchase of audio and video recorders, and the implementation of an early warning/intervention system. The RPD was required to equip all field officers and supervisors with audio recorders, which had to be turned on when they engaged members of the public, such as during a traffic stop or when responding to a call. The agreement also called for the purchase and installation of ten video cameras on police vehicles, and for the RPD to make a good faith effort to secure an additional 25 or more cameras. In addition, the judgment called for the triggering of the early intervention system whenever two reportable incidents were documented during a 12-month period (People v Riverside 2001). The RPD complied with all of the accountability provisions within the consent decree. Below, I point out several categories where the department made noteworthy strides. Roll Call Monitoring The roll call monitoring provision was deemed an innovative tool to enhance accountability. Indeed, after reviewing the consent decree, policing expert Erwin Chemerinsky had commented that using video cameras to observe roll calls was unconventional. Executive Director of the Southern California ACLU, Ramona Ripson, found that “having video cameras at roll calls is particularly interesting because police departments have long been male-dominated and loathe to accept women and minorities” (O’Neill Hill and Pitchford 2001b, B1). She added, “It |