New innovations and capitalistic progress to make us as poor, starved, and as oppressed as possible for the sake of a protected class is a constant and depressing reaffirmation. With the protests in 2020, resistance to police oppression has been brought back to the forefront. The consent decree is one of the most comprehensive. A consent decree is a legal binding document between a police municipality (the police and surrounding agencies) and the federal government for violation of constitutional rights, as an alternative to going to trial. The notion of the consent decree is to change what police culture is in a municipality. My research with the consent decree asks: is the consent decree an effective usage of resistance against the state's usage of legitimate violence and is there a discrepancy with predominantly black populations? I argue that the consent decree is not an effective use of municipal funds due to the nature of police culture as it relates to its expression of fear and militarization. This project is important because the study of W.E.I.R.D populations in relation to the consent decree is already minimal, which means a study of predominantly black populations is potentially years away.

The lack of accountability in law enforcement of police misconduct is an issue that has polarized the law enforcement landscape as well as the nation, awakening a renewed call from community leaders, policymakers, and advocates for citizen review boards and other methods of improving police transparency and accountability. How can Citizen Review Boards improve the rates of police misconduct and ensure greater police accountability? What methods do Citizen Review Boards employ to supervise police misconduct? What are the limitations and problems associated with Citizen Review Boards? The primary method of inquiry employed is a literature review of social science research in the areas of law and society, criminal justice, and policing, containing keywords such as police reform, accountability, police oversight, and citizen police complaints. Online searches using JSTOR, Google Scholar, and SAGE Publications were utilized to gather information on this topic. Based on the literature, one can hypothesize that Citizen Review Boards may affect police behavior, and they may have the potential to play a significant role in shaping police accountability and improving public safety. Previous work on this topic exposes the issue of legitimacy with Citizen Review Boards. To combat this, Citizen Review Boards must be given power to be able to reprimand police officers for misconduct, without any interagency interference. With adjustments and requirements, Citizen Review Boards can help reduce the problem of police misconduct and lead to a safer and more just society for its citizens.

San Diego County, California is part of the ‘100-mile border zone,’ also known as the ‘Constitution-Free Zone,’ where people are subject to arbitrary stops and searches without a warrant or probable cause at U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints that are located within 100 miles of the international border. Consequently, peoples’ mobility in San Diego County is regulated by essentially two borders—the international San Diego/Tijuana border and a line of traffic checkpoints that regulate entry and exit into the region. Despite undocumented San Diego residents' daily challenge to navigate checkpoint operations on their way to work, school, or even the grocery store, little is known about these checkpoint operations. The aim of the project is to determine the constitutional legality of immigration checkpoints and how they are being used to enforce the border. For this study, I conducted a policy evaluation of checkpoint operations in San Diego County to assess border enforcement measures’ impact on the region. Ultimately, I find that checkpoints are an extension of the international border that work together to manage migration into the interior of the United States through confinement and deterrence.