Book Review: The limits of community policing: Civilian power and police accountability in Black and Brown Los Angeles

• Author: Alesha L. J. Cameron
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/2153368720935959
• Subject Matter: Book Review

Book Review

Book Review

Gasc´

on, L. D., & Roussell, A. (2019). The limits of community policing: Civilian power and police

accountability in Black and Brown Los Angeles. New York University Press. 320 pp., $30 (pbk).

ISBN 978-1-4798-4225-4.

Reviewed by: Alesha L. J. Cameron , Department of Cri minal Justice, Uni versity of Centra l

Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

DOI: 10.1177/2153368720935959

As a product of the contentious past between minority community members and the

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), community policing offers a solution to

unresolved conflict between police and communities of color. In The Limits of

Community Policing: Civilian Power and Police Accountability in Black and Brown

Los Angeles, Luis Daniel Gasc´on and Aaron Roussell explore the complex relation-

ship between traditional community policing initiatives and police-citizen partner-

ships in South Los Angeles, California. Specifically focusing on the racially

heterogenous community of Lakeside, the authors embark on contextualizing com-

munity policing and the limits of civilian power in communities of color. The authors

of this text provide a depiction of the realities of community policing and the limits of

beneficial partnerships in Black and Latino communities.

In this text, the authors describe the origins of community policing, the conditions

of the South Los Angeles area, and explain their methodology. After conducting

extensive observations and interviews, and compiling field notes, as well as official

LAPD documents for 5 years, the authors present three central conclusions of the

community policing discourse. First, the authors suggest that counter to its intended

purposes, community policing is used to expand police power by promoting crime

control objectives as a remedy for community discord (p. 5). Second, the authors find

community policing allows police to limit civilian power through negotiated part-

nerships that are driven by police motivations (p. 6). Finally, the authors surmise that

the inability of community members to share community goals inhibits successful

collaborations that are needed to make real changes within the community (p. 6).

Collectively, these factors suggest community policing is an extension of police

control, as opposed to a shared police-community collaboration.

Throughout the text, the authors explore the questionable past of the LAPD, review its

history of racial conflict and subsequent police reforms, and describe the historical origins

of the Lakeside community. The authors argue that contentious police-community events

and violent community protests, have led the LAPD to respond with superficial police

Race and Justice

ªThe Author(s) 2020

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2022, Vol. 12(4) 755–758