THE HIGHLY PUBLICIZED beating of Rodney King by uniformed police officers encouraged national debate on the issue of police brutality. The King incident caused people to question their own police departments. Gerald Williams, chief of police in Aurora, Colorado, and former president of the Police Executive Research Forum, a national professional organization, favors this debate. In congressional testimony in 1992, Williams said:

We believe the King incident should be examined carefully. It should serve as a catalyst for self-examination for every city, large or small, every police or sheriff's department, and moreover, for every man and woman who carries a badge. We must ask ourselves hard questions: Are we fair? Are all of our citizens well served? Do we uphold the oaths we have taken to protect and serve"

Self-examination by police departments is not new. Police reform occurred throughout the country in the 1970s. At that time, the...