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172
institutional reform intervention and the substance of the reform program stipulated
within the settlement agreement were not affected by these changes.
The AG’s Office was more interested in securing an agreement with
meaningful reforms that could be implemented. Although the AG’s Office provided
the basis for the lawsuit, it pared down any extraneous language that was
unnecessary to the agreement. As long as the goal of police reform was unaltered,
publicly dressing down the City of Riverside served no productive purpose.
Another example of conciliation by the AG’s Office was the use of the term
“consultant” rather than other more loaded terms typically employed in consent
decrees such as special master, auditor, monitor, and receiver.79 The City also
considered the term “consent decree” to have a negative connotation, so the AG’s
Office instead referred to the settlement as a stipulated judgment.
Riverside leaders appreciated these concessions, which to them were major
concerns, but to the AG’s Office were negligible. The AG’s Office realized that
Riverside was agreeable to police reforms, but was worried about its reputation and
the stigma of a consent decree, and thus made every effort to alleviate these concerns
by managing external impressions through language and interaction style. From
investigation to compliance, reformers are advised to react appropriately to the City
and police department’s local milieu. This strategy allows interveners to negotiate
more productively, and also establishes a positive atmosphere conducive to
cooperation. In Riverside, a flexible conciliatory style resulted in greater
79 The consultant often served in the role of coach while guiding the reforms.
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 184 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 172 institutional reform intervention and the substance of the reform program stipulated within the settlement agreement were not affected by these changes. The AG’s Office was more interested in securing an agreement with meaningful reforms that could be implemented. Although the AG’s Office provided the basis for the lawsuit, it pared down any extraneous language that was unnecessary to the agreement. As long as the goal of police reform was unaltered, publicly dressing down the City of Riverside served no productive purpose. Another example of conciliation by the AG’s Office was the use of the term “consultant” rather than other more loaded terms typically employed in consent decrees such as special master, auditor, monitor, and receiver.79 The City also considered the term “consent decree” to have a negative connotation, so the AG’s Office instead referred to the settlement as a stipulated judgment. Riverside leaders appreciated these concessions, which to them were major concerns, but to the AG’s Office were negligible. The AG’s Office realized that Riverside was agreeable to police reforms, but was worried about its reputation and the stigma of a consent decree, and thus made every effort to alleviate these concerns by managing external impressions through language and interaction style. From investigation to compliance, reformers are advised to react appropriately to the City and police department’s local milieu. This strategy allows interveners to negotiate more productively, and also establishes a positive atmosphere conducive to cooperation. In Riverside, a flexible conciliatory style resulted in greater 79 The consultant often served in the role of coach while guiding the reforms. |
