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169
Waudieur “Woodie” Rucker-Hughes, an involved and respected community
leader who serves as the President of the Riverside Branch of the NAACP, has
appeared with other community members before the Riverside City Council twice in
the last several years in support of RPOA’s contract negotiations with the City.
Although there is still some distrust by the community, this show of solidarity with
the police union would have been unimaginable in 2001; however, since the consent
decree there has been an undeniable détente in the relationship (Rucker-Hughes
2008).
The Riverside case suggests that reformers need to engage the police union as
early as possible in the reform process. In addition, reformers should attempt to
enlist the union by finding ways to appeal to the union’s self-interest and to build its
trust. This is never simple. However, any incremental upgrade in labor relations
will yield more productive implementation outcomes. Many policing reforms are
mutually beneficial, and finding opportunities where the self-interest of unions and
the public interest intersect can improve the chances for reform. The Riverside
example suggests dialogue and efforts to find common ground can jump start
relationships that have a history of being antagonistic, and lead to solutions that are
mutually agreeable.
Another significant recommendation for reformers gleaned from the work in
Riverside is the importance of instilling ownership of the reforms in the entire
community. As Skolnick and Fyfe suggest, it is more effective to enlist partners in
the process than it is to force reforms down the throat of police departments.
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 181 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 169 Waudieur “Woodie” Rucker-Hughes, an involved and respected community leader who serves as the President of the Riverside Branch of the NAACP, has appeared with other community members before the Riverside City Council twice in the last several years in support of RPOA’s contract negotiations with the City. Although there is still some distrust by the community, this show of solidarity with the police union would have been unimaginable in 2001; however, since the consent decree there has been an undeniable détente in the relationship (Rucker-Hughes 2008). The Riverside case suggests that reformers need to engage the police union as early as possible in the reform process. In addition, reformers should attempt to enlist the union by finding ways to appeal to the union’s self-interest and to build its trust. This is never simple. However, any incremental upgrade in labor relations will yield more productive implementation outcomes. Many policing reforms are mutually beneficial, and finding opportunities where the self-interest of unions and the public interest intersect can improve the chances for reform. The Riverside example suggests dialogue and efforts to find common ground can jump start relationships that have a history of being antagonistic, and lead to solutions that are mutually agreeable. Another significant recommendation for reformers gleaned from the work in Riverside is the importance of instilling ownership of the reforms in the entire community. As Skolnick and Fyfe suggest, it is more effective to enlist partners in the process than it is to force reforms down the throat of police departments. |
