The New Paradigm of Police Accountability: The U.S. Justice Department Pattern or Practice Suits in Context
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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PATTERN OR PRACTICE SUITS IN
CONTEXT
SAMUEL WALKER*.
I. AMERICAN POLICING TODAY: THE BEST OF TIMES/THE WORST OF TIMES
In April 2001, the city of Cincinnati experienced a riot reminiscent of the
1960s: an outburst of African American rage following the fifteenth fatal
shooting of a young black man by the Cincinnati Police Department in six
years.' At the same time, the department was sued by local civil rights and
civil liberties groups over racial profiling. The police crisis led to an
investigation of the police department by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S.
Justice Department. In the spring of 2002, the racial profiling suit and the
Justice Department investigation were jointly settled through a Memorandum
of Agreement with the Justice Department and a Collaborative Agreement with
the plaintiffs in the racial profiling suit.2
The two Cincinnati agreements mandate a series of reforms designed to
enhance police accountability. The Memorandum of Agreement requires,
among other changes, a revision of the police department's policy on the use of
force, the development of policies governing deployment of the canine unit, a
risk management system to identify problem officers, and a court appointed
* Isaacson Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182-
0149; samwalker@unornaha.edu. In the interest of disclosure, the author has been directly
involved in some of the activities and reports cited in this article. He was a paid consultant to the
Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in its investigation of the New Jersey
State Police and the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C. He also participated in
conferences and discussions that led to the Justice Department report, PRINCIPLES FOR
PROMOTING POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY. See PRINCIPLES, infra note 18.
1. See Francis X. Clines, Appeals for Peace in Ohio After Two Days of Protests, N.Y.
TIMES, Apr. 12, 2001, at A18.
2. MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
JUSTICE AND THE CITY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO AND THE CINCINNATI POLICE DEPARTMENT (April
12, 2002), http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/Cincmoafinal.htm [hereinafter CINCINNATI
MEMORANDUM]; Collaborative Agreement, In re Cincinnati Policing, No. C-1-99-3170, 2002
U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15928, at *27 (S.D. Ohio Aug. 5, 2002), http://www.cincinnatipolice.org/doj/
finalsettlement.pdf, also available at http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/04/04/
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The New Paradigm of Police Accountability: The U.S. Justice Department Pattern or Practice Suits in Context
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