Police organizational failure and decoupling: Identifying precursors to failure through the rampart commission
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1461355718824347 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Police organizational failure and
decoupling: Identifying precursors
to failure through the rampart
commission
Amanda Johnson
(Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice,) University of Memphis, USA
Abstract
In criminal justice organizations, organizational failure can have catastrophic, often tragic, repercussions. Through the
theoretical framework of coupling, this work studies a past organizational failure, the Rampart incident in Los Angeles, and
determine what organizational characteristics led to the failure. Using case study analysis, this article investigates
circumstances leading to or ganizational dysfunction , the categories of failure ar e coded and analyzed to determi ne
precursors to organizational failure. Ultimately, this article shows that police organizational failure is not simply the
case of misconduct or deviance, but rather a natural occurrence that can be precipitated by organizational precursors.
From these precursors, it should be possible to develop a template which could identify organizations at risk for failure.
Keywords
Rampart, Christopher Commission, decoupling, loose coupling
Submitted 09 Mar 2018, Revise received 25 May 2018, accepted 12 Nov 2018
Introduction
Almost every member of society will be affected in some
manner by the criminal justice system. Because societal
opinion has been influenced by media, social media, and
entertainment, it is a popular assumption among citizens
that organizational failure in police departments is always
the result of misconduct, incompetence, or corruption
(Kappeler et al., 1994). Because of the high-risk nature of
law enforcement, it consequently makes little difference in
the possibility of catastrophic organizational failure if
police officers intentionally commit wrongdoing or if
police officer mistakes are unintentional; the amount of
power and trust granted the police, as an organization, cre-
ates volatile possibilities for failure.
The assumption of this article, however, is not that the
power, authority, and trust instilled in the police by society
are root causes of organizational failure; the function of
police necessarily requires devolution of this authority.
Additionally, because of the requirement for street-level
decision-making (Mastrofski, 2004; Muir, 1977), police
must be vested with the discretion necessary to make quick
decisions and react immediately to situations that they
encounter.
To focus solely on the problem of police misconduct or
corruption would be a futile effort. Indeed, police corrup-
tion, misconduct, or error is constant, and the problem is the
identification of and the response to these issues by police
organizations and organizational members, which facilitate
police organizational failure. To this end, the theoretical
framework of coupling should provide a method by which
to identify and recognize precursors to catastrophic orga-
nizational failure (Katz and Maguire, 2002; Orton and
Weick, 1990; Perrow, 1991; Weick, 1976).
Corresponding author:
Amanda Johnson, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice,
University of Memphis, 315 McCord Hall, Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
Email: djhnsn42@memphis.edu
International Journalof
Police Science & Management
2019, Vol. 21(2) 81–90
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1461355718824347
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