ABSTRACT
There is little doubt that the Rodney King incident served, in some way, to help trigger the LAPD meltdown. However, the question remains: Was the King incident the primary cause of the organizational chaos and disorder within the department that is believed to have precipitated the fall of the professional model of policing? As previously mentioned in Chapter 3, officer statements suggested that the meltdown was definitely “put into motion” following both internal and external reactions to the King affair, but it remains to be discovered if these reactions gained enough traction to bring forth the professional model’s demise.
