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

A critical look at the realities of community policing in South Los Angeles

The Limits of Community Policing addresses conflicts between police and communities. Luis Daniel Gasc n and Aaron Roussell depart from traditional conceptions, arguing that community policing--popularized for decades as a racial panacea--is not the solution it seems to be.

Tracing this policy back to its origins, they focus on the Los Angeles Police Department, which first introduced community policing after the high-profile Rodney King riots. Drawing on over sixty interviews with officers, residents, and stakeholders in South LA's "Lakeside" precinct, they show how police tactics amplified--rather than resolved--racial tensions, complicating partnership efforts, crime response and prevention, and accountability.

Gasc n and Roussell shine a new light on the residents of this neighborhood to address the enduring--and frequently explosive--conflicts between police and communities. At a time when these issues have taken center stage, this volume offers a critical understanding of how community policing really works.