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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:24 am
Time: 1:24 am
Results for special litigation section
1 results foundAuthor: Walker, Samuel Title: Twenty Years of DOJ "Pattern or Practice" Investigations of Local Police: Achievements, Limitations, and Questions Summary: Introduction The advent of the Trump administration, in the view of many observers, probably spells the end of the Justice Department's "pattern or practice" program of investigating local law enforcement agencies for alleged violations of the constitutional rights of local residents. Both President Donald Trump and the new Attorney General Jeff Sessions have spoken critically of the program, and also of the widespread public criticisms of police abuse since the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014. The end of the pattern or practice program is an appropriate occasion for an assessment of the work of the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division. The Civil Rights Division in January 2017 issued its own report on its efforts since 1994. The program was an unprecedented event in the history of American policing. Never before has the federal government intervened in local policing to the extent the pattern and practice program has. And never has it required such extensive reforms in matters of routine policing for the purpose of reducing if not ending officer misconduct and racial and ethnic bias. A number of questions about the DOJ pattern or practice program have already been raised in the media and by academic studies. Has the program effectively reduced police misconduct? Has it done so in a cost-effective manner? Are the specific reforms chosen by the Special Litigation Section the best means of achieving systemic police reform? Has the program had stimulated reforms in other departments by posing a threat of investigation if they fail to institute necessary reforms? Have the reforms been sustained once a consent decree is ended? Has the program intruded in matters that are best left to local authorities? Are there alternative means of achieving systemic police reform in seriously troubled law enforcement agencies? (The Justice Department has answered this question, in part, by creating within the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, the Collaborative Reform process, which involves a voluntary and non- litigation approach to police reform.) We have at best only partial answers to some of these questions, and some of the questions have not been addressed at all. Additionally, many of the discussions that have occurred have framed particular issues in narrow terms, failing to take into account the full context of the issue under discussion. This paper undertakes a broad assessment of the Justice Department's "pattern or practice" program. It identifies the major achievements of the program and its limitations, and discusses the major questions that need to be addressed by scholars, police officials, news media, and policy makers. The paper argues that the program has made a significant contribution to the achievement of professional, bias-free and constitutional policing. Particularly important, the program has illuminated several important aspects of the challenge of systemic organizational reform in policing, involving issues that are relevant to all public bureaucracies. At the same time, the program has had some significant limitations. There has been some backsliding in some departments. Most important, the question of whether the reforms in question are sustained over the long term remains unanswered at this time. Details: Omaha, Nebraska, United States: University of Nebraska at Omaha, 2017. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 9, 2019 at: https://samuelwalker.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DOJ-PP-Program-Feb24.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://samuelwalker.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DOJ-PP-Program-Feb24.pdf Shelf Number: 154746 Keywords: Civil Rights Division Constitutional Policing Federal Intervention Law Enforcement Local Policing Policing Policing Reform Special Litigation Section |