Political Control and Policing: When Do Police Comply with Police Reform?

Police wield broad discretion. They are also agents of political principals who set policy that prescribes their behavior. We develop a model of police reform and argue that successful implementation requires that either (1) o!cers do not resist key policy elements or (2) principals are willing to sanction non-compliant o!cers. We test our theory using a 2022 Los Angeles Police Department reform regarding the practice of pretextual tra!c stops. Drawing on bodyworn camera footage and millions of stop records, we find that o!cers complied with the stop documentation reforms, which were not strongly opposed. In comparison, early reductions in pretextual stops dissipated within a year. Interviews with LAPD personnel support our model's predictions that noncompliance was driven by agent resistance and a lack of expected sanctions for policy violations.