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155 police are co-producers of public safety, meaning that outside opinion and advice are necessary for the success of the policing effort. A third factor that ensured the successful reform of the RPD was the level of involvement and expertise by the Attorney General’s Office. The work of the AG’s Office made a significant difference in the revival of the Riverside Police Department. The California Department of Justice had never before investigated a police agency when they began probing the RPD. Indeed, much of the work of the AG’s Office relating to the Tyisha Miller shooting and the RPD was unlike anything the office had done before. Attorney General Lockyer had made the creation of a Civil Rights Enforcement Section a key part of his election campaign in 1998. Immediately after taking office, he established the section and provided it with the staff and resources to carry out an aggressive civil rights agenda. He appointed the right person, Louis Verdugo, to lead the section, who in turn provided exemplary leadership over the Riverside police reform effort. The negotiated stipulated judgment was the first of its kind by a state Attorney General. Investigations of police agencies and the negotiation of consent decrees are typically the domain of the federal government, so the decision to become involved in Riverside was unusual. This pioneering work of the AG’s Office allowed for innovative thinking and a greater freedom to do some things differently. Senior Assistant Attorney General Louis Verdugo and the AG’s monitor, Joe Brann, directed the work of the AG’s Office. They were a good combination of
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 167 |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
Full text | 155 police are co-producers of public safety, meaning that outside opinion and advice are necessary for the success of the policing effort. A third factor that ensured the successful reform of the RPD was the level of involvement and expertise by the Attorney General’s Office. The work of the AG’s Office made a significant difference in the revival of the Riverside Police Department. The California Department of Justice had never before investigated a police agency when they began probing the RPD. Indeed, much of the work of the AG’s Office relating to the Tyisha Miller shooting and the RPD was unlike anything the office had done before. Attorney General Lockyer had made the creation of a Civil Rights Enforcement Section a key part of his election campaign in 1998. Immediately after taking office, he established the section and provided it with the staff and resources to carry out an aggressive civil rights agenda. He appointed the right person, Louis Verdugo, to lead the section, who in turn provided exemplary leadership over the Riverside police reform effort. The negotiated stipulated judgment was the first of its kind by a state Attorney General. Investigations of police agencies and the negotiation of consent decrees are typically the domain of the federal government, so the decision to become involved in Riverside was unusual. This pioneering work of the AG’s Office allowed for innovative thinking and a greater freedom to do some things differently. Senior Assistant Attorney General Louis Verdugo and the AG’s monitor, Joe Brann, directed the work of the AG’s Office. They were a good combination of |