LA Policing After Rodney King: A Department's Transformation After a High-Profile Case of Police Brutality

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/33807

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International Studies (BA)

Heemstra, Anouk (2015)

LA Policing After Rodney King: A Department's Transformation After a High-Profile Case of Police Brutality

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

This research aims to shed light on the effects that high-profile incidents of police brutality can have on police practices. More specifically, the thesis asks the question of how and to what extent the high-profile police brutality case of Rodney King has influenced the culture and practices of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The thesis concludes that the LAPD has underwent major reforms that have quite successfully addressed the problems of racism and excessive use of force. The LAPD has done so by focusing on building stronger partnerships with the different communities that it serves, and by changing its style of policing from a 'professional' model towards a 'community-based' model.