The Scene that started it all:
After a decade of policing crises that began with the beating of Rodney King in April, 1991, which was shown around the World wasn’t bad enough, the Rampart police corruption scandal in 1999 wasn’t bad enough, the city of Los Angles exploded after the three officers were found not guilty in the beating of Rodney King. People took to the streets to protest, and over 50 people lost their lives.
Reforms:
The U. S. Department of Justice announced in 2000 that it had accumulated enough evidence to sue the City of Los Angeles over a pattern-and- practice of police misconduct. The city government entered a “consent decree” promising to adopt scores of reform measures under the supervision of the Federal Court.
There were two components included in the police reform:
The consent decree produced by the Justice Department’s intervention, and the leadership of chief William Bratton, who since 2002 has focused the Department’s attention simultaneously on reducing crime, improving morale, and complying fully with the consent decree.
Results:
The LMPD did not meet their goals after five years, so the Government decided to extend the decree for three more years. But, during those first five years, the crime rate dropped, there were fewer reports of police complaints, and changes were made from the top to the bottom.
At first, you had policemen complain about they were afraid to stop people for fear of being reprimanded; having too much paperwork to complete, fearing their evaluations would reflect negatively if they received a bad report. There were complaints that the new recruits were “thugs,” “gang members,” and some, (Hispanics) couldn’t even speak “English.”
As time went on, the departments decided to hire more staff to complete the paperwork to free the officers to be in their communities more during their shifts, the public started