Effectiveness of Consent Degrees

Posted: March 27th, 2020

Effectiveness of Consent Degrees

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Briefly, discuss the effectiveness of consent degrees and Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. In doing so, describe the legal provision which allowed the Department of Justice DOJ to intervene in instances where allegations are made that constitutional policing is not followed as a matter of patterns and practices.

Effectiveness of Consent Decrees

Congress passed Title 42 of the United States Code with a view of combating police misconduct. The regulation aimed at instituting proactive reforms to the law enforcement sector. The statute provided the Department of Justice authority to establish litigation on structural changes in police departments. In enforcing the law, the department has intervened using numerous agreements. The Justice Department has the mandate of implementing regulations and administering impartial rulings. In this respect, the department is responsible for ensuring that all government agencies dispense justice fairly. With consent decrees, the DOJ acts as a mediator between the public’s interests and the law enforcement agencies (Alpert, McLean & Wolfe, 2017). The police are empowered by the law to deal with crime and disorder. The consent decree has proved to be effective in ensuring law enforcement agencies to execute their mandate judiciously.

            Various courts and the Department of Justice use consent decrees to reform institutions that violate the civil rights of citizens by police misconducts. The effectiveness of the federal intervention has been the subject of recent debates. The University of Texas studied the correlation between the respective legislations and the occurrences of police transgression in the country (Powell et al., 2017). The findings indicated that consent decrees had reduced the number of civil rights suits against police departments. Statistically, the litigations have decreased by 36% (Powell et al., 2017). The outcomes illustrate that consent decrees have been useful in keeping the conduct of law enforcement officers in check.

Nonetheless, all government agencies should utilize power in a manner that respects the civil rights of individuals and communities. Consent decrees also help the judicial system to eliminate frequent cases of police abuse. The result is that courts have more time to deal with other litigations in the implementation of justice. These provisions are also improving collaboration between the police and the community. Proper reforms in the police departments are only achievable with the partnership of the society because the people understand the challenges better.

References

Alpert, G. P., McLean, K., & Wolfe, S. (2017). Consent decrees: An approach to police accountability and reform. Police Quarterly, 20(3), 239-249.

Powell, Z. A., Meitl, M. B., & Worrall, J. L. (2017). Police consent decrees and Section 1983 civil rights litigation. Criminology & Public Policy, 16(2), 575-605.