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The Limits of Community Policing: Civilian Power and Police Accountability in Black and Brown Los Angeles

Online ISBN:
9781479870318
Print ISBN:
9781479871209
Publisher:
NYU Press
Book

The Limits of Community Policing: Civilian Power and Police Accountability in Black and Brown Los Angeles

Luis Daniel Gascón,
Luis Daniel Gascón
University of San Francisco
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Aaron Roussell
Aaron Roussell
Portland State University
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Published online:
23 January 2020
Published in print:
23 July 2019
Online ISBN:
9781479870318
Print ISBN:
9781479871209
Publisher:
NYU Press

Abstract

Community policing structures erected in the wake of rising crime rates and civil disorder throughout the 1990s were supposed to provide civilians a platform from which to influence law enforcement policy. Yet the fires that burned in Ferguson in 2014 raise doubts about how much influence the public has on police, particularly in marginalized communities. This book challenges the common narrative that community policing has democratized the police, when there is ample evidence that US police powers have expanded alongside the proliferation of community-based strategies. It reveals how community governance works to limit civilian power and turn residents into appendages of the state—their “eyes and ears” on the street as well as their mouthpieces during crises. Further, the authors argue that disputes about who does and does not count as community complicate mobilization. Finally, they argue that until police departments are forced to adapt directly to the needs of communities of color, grassroots organizations should lead initiatives that purport to be community based.

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