ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of police reform in the US and then uses the example of the Los Angeles Police Department to show that the enforcement arm of a capitalist state can hardly be reformed to tame violent behaviors that are central to its purpose. The early 1900's saw internal efforts to reform police departments, led by trail-blazing Berkeley police chief August Vollmer. These emphasized professionalism, insulation from political influence, and the adoption of scientific technologies—all in the name of more effective crime-fighting. The tension between capitalist and working-class reform goals continued to play out in the ensuing decades. Capitalist emphasis on community policing sounded benign, but in practice meant augmenting police presence and using communication tools and personal relationships to intensify surveillance. Anecdotes about police misconduct, disciplinary failures, toxic police culture, and wrangling over policy and practice speak to the extraordinary difficulty of achieving any reform that might weaken social control asserted through police power.
