Police Consent Decrees and Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation

Powell, Zachary A.; Meitl, Michele Bisaccia; Worrall, John

doi:10.1111/1745-9133.12295

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This information apprises social work practice by demonstrating the continuing need to construct a bridge between the two groups. Thus far, cities in agreement with the DOJ saw more than 20% reduction in filed civil rights lawsuits that involved police use of excessive force (Powell et al, 2017). Although there was not an immediate policy change after cities entered an agreement, cities are continuously working to improve their behavior and results.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior to 2008, six cities entered a consent decree agreement (Upper Marlboro, MD; Detroit, MI; Los Angeles, CA; Newark, NJ; Steubenville, OH; and Pittsburgh, PA) and three were found to engage in excessive force practices (Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Steubenville) (US DOJ, 2017). Studies from these cities have reported more effective policing as a result of the consent decree; although limitations existed (Davis, Henderson, Mandelstam, Ortiz, & Miller, 2002;Powell, Meitl, & Worrall, 2017;Stone, Foglesong, & Cole, 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

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A Decade's Tale

Rhodes

Robinson

Archibald

et al. 2020

ASW

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According to the U.S. Department of Justice (US DOJ, 2016), African Americans have experienced disproportionate instances of police use of excessive force as a result of discriminatory practices and insufficient training. Officers are permitted to use appropriate force in specific situations; however, when force is excessive and deemed unnecessary, it then becomes an issue of concern. The U.S. Department of Justice was invited to investigate police departments that participated in the use of excessive force and a consent decree was developed with those departments to remedy the DOJ's findings. The researchers conducted a consent decree analysis examining government investigations of police practices throughout the U.S. between 2008 and 2018 comprising the following terms: police reform, consent decrees, settlement agreement, investigation reports, use-offorce, and policy to determine how prevalent excessive force was used towards African Americans. Findings indicated that within the decade, 14 cities were investigated, 12 were identified as using excessive force, with nine having their use-of-force policies available, and four municipalities using excessive force against African Americans. Social work values, advocacy, and cultural training were also identified to aid in the decrease of excessive force complaints.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

A Decade's Tale

Rhodes

Robinson

Archibald

et al. 2020

ASW

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“…Most recently, Powell, Meitl, and Worrall (2017) conducted an empirical evaluation of civil litigation filed against agencies before and after they were subjected to CDs. Their hypothesis was that if the DOJ intervention was successful, then the number of Section 1983 lawsuits would decrease.…”

Section: Issues Of Evaluation and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as Harmon (2017) notes in her responding essay, ''In fact, section 1983 suits are a poor proxy for constitutional violations (much less for misconduct more generally) because the incidence of civil suits rises and falls for reasons that are uncorrelated with police conduct'' (Draft, p. 2). In her thoughtful and wellargued essay, she explains the problems with measuring the success of CDs and commends Powell et al (2017) for their efforts and attempts to operationalize success. The conclusion reached by Powell et al is that CDs are likely associated with moderate reductions in filings of federal civil-rights lawsuits against officers or agencies (see Scott, 2017).…”

Section: Issues Of Evaluation and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Consent Decrees

2017

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Federal consent decrees have been a method of police reform available to the federal government since the 1990s. The consent decree process has been shrouded in secrecy for many years. Recently, the methods and data have become available allowing for more detailed analyses of the objectives and outcomes of these agreements. As a result, several reviews of consent decrees have been conducted, noting the successes and failures. Overall, consent decrees are successful in the short term but have not been sustainable. With the changing political landscape, consent decrees may not be available in the near future, and efforts will revert back to the individual agencies and their political entities. This special issue provides a window into the inner-workings of consent decrees through the perspectives of individuals who are involved with them. The authors of the articles are all involved with consent decrees and are reporting their experiences and assessments.

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“…Several large metropolitan police departments have been found to participate in activities with inequitable impact on minority communities including racial profiling (Hughey, ; Vogelsang‐Coombs, ); or in extreme cases, torture (Baer, ). Consent decrees' have been implemented (Powell, Meitl, & Worrall, ) to reconcile these injustices. Criminologists are concerned with de‐policing, decreases in proactive policing within jurisdictions, yet the research is still largely inconsistent with some research indicating no such effect post‐Ferguson type events (Chanin & Sheats, ), while other research indicating an association that was largely driven by jurisdictions with larger shares of African‐American residents (Shjarback, Pyrooz, Wolfe, & Decker, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is Policing the Community? A Comprehensive Review of Discrimination in Police Departments

2017

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This paper is a systematic review of the literature on diversity in police forces. We focus on four main empirical domains that have received the bulk of the attention in the literature 1) recruitment 2) hiring, 3) promotion, 4) organizational contexts. We argue that this literature would be better served by integrating findings into the emerging theoretical framework of racialized organizations theory which sees organizations as a key meso-level factor reproducing both individual and state level racial inequality.Building from here, we described our methodological approach for systematically reviewing the extant literature and present our findings. Lastly, we conclude with highlighting sociopolitical and policy implications uncovered by our findings, for contemporary American policing. | INTRODUCTIONAmerican policing is in crisis. High profile police killings of unarmed black and Latino men-often caught on film and shared millions of times through social media-have pushed racialized police brutality to the forefront the national conversation. Public outcry against these killings has galvanized a social movement reminiscent of the 1960s. The #blacklivesmatter movement has become a potent political force, encouraging thousands to take to the streets, protest, march, work locally, and sign petitions to achieve criminal justice reforms (Taylor, 2016). The U.S. Department of Justice investigations of biased policing have come down strongly in favor of protest movements. In Ferguson, the U.S. Department of Justice found that the police had become the enforcement arm of a racialized "extraction machine" (Henricks & Seamster, 2016), over policing the black population and fining them to cover for tax shortfalls (Taylor, 2016). In Baltimore, federal agents witnessed a Sargent telling patrol to racially profile. When the officers objected that the men in question had done nothing, the Sargent encouraged them to "make something up" (Department of Justice, U.S., 2016:29). Most recently, officers in the Chicago police department-under investigation in response to the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times-was found to have a pattern of lying about their involvement in criminal activity (Department of Justice, U.S., 2017). The scale of these problems, and the intensity of this conversation threatens to delegitimize the institution of policing itself.Political developments also point to a policing crisis. The Trump administration has encouraged policies that may deepen racial tensions between police and communities of color. Stop-and-frisk and increased racial profiling ignore the fact that crime rates remain at historic lows (Berg & Lauritsen, 2016;Ousey, 2017;Pyrooz, Decker, Wolfe, & Shjarback, 2016). Several large metropolitan police departments have been found to participate in activities with inequitable impact on minority communities including racial profiling (Hughey, 2015;Vogelsang-Coombs, 2016); or in extreme cases, torture (Baer, 2017). Consent decrees' have been implemented (Powell, Meitl, & Worra...

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Police Consent Decrees and Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation

Cited by 30 publications

References 37 publications

A Decade's Tale

A Decade's Tale

Consent Decrees

Who is Policing the Community? A Comprehensive Review of Discrimination in Police Departments

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