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147
professionals and advocates, as well as actual patients. In addition to training, the
City established a homeless shelter and has hired a non-profit organization to operate
it. Further, the City has hired a homeless coordinator, and with the RPD has created
a Homeless Outreach Team that includes clinical social workers. Although too early
to evaluate, the program should alleviate potentially volatile interactions between
police and the homeless, and provide much needed assistance and services to an
extremely underserved and vulnerable constituency.
Assessing the Impact of the California Attorney General’s Reform Intervention
The Riverside Police Department no longer looks like the law enforcement
agency that the AG’s investigators encountered in 1999. The head of the AG’s Civil
Rights Enforcement Section remarked that following the Miller shooting the RPD
had “hit rock bottom” (Verdugo 2008). Since that time, the personnel and
managerial infrastructure has improved as a result of the reforms required by the
AG’s consent decree. Improvements in recruiting, training and compensation for
officers and managers have reshaped the make-up of the department. The
department is more highly educated, more diverse, better trained, and able to make
use of state-of-the-art equipment and systems to do its work. The department has
effective and committed leadership, particularly in its Police Chief, Russ Leach.
Indeed, the Riverside Police Department has been reconstructed by Leach
through officer recruitment, promotions, and more aggressive personnel
management. The RPD has improved the salaries and benefits of police officers
since 2001. Police officer salaries increased 27%, and officers now receive a 3% at
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 159 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 147 professionals and advocates, as well as actual patients. In addition to training, the City established a homeless shelter and has hired a non-profit organization to operate it. Further, the City has hired a homeless coordinator, and with the RPD has created a Homeless Outreach Team that includes clinical social workers. Although too early to evaluate, the program should alleviate potentially volatile interactions between police and the homeless, and provide much needed assistance and services to an extremely underserved and vulnerable constituency. Assessing the Impact of the California Attorney General’s Reform Intervention The Riverside Police Department no longer looks like the law enforcement agency that the AG’s investigators encountered in 1999. The head of the AG’s Civil Rights Enforcement Section remarked that following the Miller shooting the RPD had “hit rock bottom” (Verdugo 2008). Since that time, the personnel and managerial infrastructure has improved as a result of the reforms required by the AG’s consent decree. Improvements in recruiting, training and compensation for officers and managers have reshaped the make-up of the department. The department is more highly educated, more diverse, better trained, and able to make use of state-of-the-art equipment and systems to do its work. The department has effective and committed leadership, particularly in its Police Chief, Russ Leach. Indeed, the Riverside Police Department has been reconstructed by Leach through officer recruitment, promotions, and more aggressive personnel management. The RPD has improved the salaries and benefits of police officers since 2001. Police officer salaries increased 27%, and officers now receive a 3% at |
