In 1994, Congress gave the Civil Rights Div. of the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) the authority to file civil law suits against states and municipalities in the face of a “pattern or practice” of illegal or unconstitutional police actions. Since then, DOJ has investigated police practices in jurisdictions from N.Y. to Calif. In some cases, DOJ filed lawsuits, but these cases were settled by consent decrees or a memorandum of agreement or understanding. These generally outline a specific series of reforms that the police department must implement, and most provide for a federal monitor to oversee compliance. Monitors are expected to complete their assignments within a few years and to leave the local police force capable of monitoring itself and responding effectively to any future officer misconduct. Lessons learned from the early experiences of federal monitoring of local police agencies can offer other jurisdictions models of how to work efficiently with their monitors or help them understand how to bring about police reform without federal intervention. This report examines how the Pittsburgh, PA, Bureau of Police responded to the consent decree and the extent to which changes made under the decree have been institutionalized. Figures and tables. This is a print on demand report.

This book evaluates how structural reform litigation initiated by federal intervention has transformed police departments and reduced law enforcement misconduct.

For much of American history, the federal government has played a limited role in local police regulation. That all changed in 1994, when Congress passed a little known statute that permitted the US Attorney General to reform troubled police departments. Since then, many of the nation's largest police departments - including those in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Washington, DC, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Albuquerque - have been subject to federal oversight. But until recently, we've known little about how this federal process works. Drawing on original interviews, court documents, statistical data, and media reports, this book provides the first comprehensive account of federal intervention in American police departments. It shows that, under the right circumstances, federal intervention is uniquely effective at combating misconduct in police departments. However, federal intervention is far from perfect. This book concludes by arguing that Congress should expand and improve federal oversight of policing.

From Summary: ... the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Acy, which gives DOJ's Civil Rights Division the authority to investigate state and local law enforcement agencies that it believes have unconstitutional policies or practices of conduct. The law is intended to address systemic issues, rather than individual complaints... The alleged misconduct cannot be an isolated incident. And there is no private right of action under the 1994 law; only the Justice Department is given authority to launch investigations and litigation under this statute.

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred. Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing. Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.

Policing the Open Road examines how the rise of the car, that symbol of American personal freedom, inadvertently led to ever more intrusive policing--with disastrous consequences for racial equality in our criminal justice system. When Americans think of freedom, they often picture the open road. Yet nowhere are we more likely to encounter the long arm of the law than in our cars. Sarah Seo reveals how the rise of the automobile transformed American freedom in radical ways, leading us to accept--and expect--pervasive police power. As Policing the Open Road makes clear, this expectation has had far-reaching political and legal consequences.--