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122
Video Cameras
The stipulated judgment mandated that the RPD would purchase and install
ten video cameras and make a good faith effort to obtain 25 or more cameras. The
department far exceeded the consent decree’s provision. As of May 2008, 129
cameras had been ordered and approximately 100 were already installed in marked
police vehicles. The videos from the cameras are downloaded wirelessly after every
shift (audio recordings are downloaded after every shift as well). In addition, the
department added video cameras to other critical areas such as booking rooms, front
counters, and the perimeters of police facilities (Wright 2008).
The video recorders serve the same accountability function as the audio
recorders. Indeed, one interesting interaction between a suspect and a police officer
occurred recently that demonstrated the utility of the video cameras. A suspect in
custody filed a complaint that an officer had beat him up while being removed from
a police vehicle to be booked at a police facility. When video of the alleged
encounter was reviewed (a video camera outside the facility recorded the incident), it
revealed that while the officer removed evidence from the trunk of his police vehicle,
the suspect violently banged his head against the police car suffering self-inflicted
injuries to his head and face. These types of examples prompted suspicious officers
to embrace the video and audio recorders, as the recorders have often served to
protect officers from false allegations (Kossky 2008).
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 134 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 122 Video Cameras The stipulated judgment mandated that the RPD would purchase and install ten video cameras and make a good faith effort to obtain 25 or more cameras. The department far exceeded the consent decree’s provision. As of May 2008, 129 cameras had been ordered and approximately 100 were already installed in marked police vehicles. The videos from the cameras are downloaded wirelessly after every shift (audio recordings are downloaded after every shift as well). In addition, the department added video cameras to other critical areas such as booking rooms, front counters, and the perimeters of police facilities (Wright 2008). The video recorders serve the same accountability function as the audio recorders. Indeed, one interesting interaction between a suspect and a police officer occurred recently that demonstrated the utility of the video cameras. A suspect in custody filed a complaint that an officer had beat him up while being removed from a police vehicle to be booked at a police facility. When video of the alleged encounter was reviewed (a video camera outside the facility recorded the incident), it revealed that while the officer removed evidence from the trunk of his police vehicle, the suspect violently banged his head against the police car suffering self-inflicted injuries to his head and face. These types of examples prompted suspicious officers to embrace the video and audio recorders, as the recorders have often served to protect officers from false allegations (Kossky 2008). |
