Consent decrees are a sign of a high level of years of disfunction within an organization. Part of the organization’s problems are simply that they cannot institute change. If they had the skill sets, their leadership probably would have changed polices and procedures to avoid the consent decree. Often the decrees require changes to a department’s recruiting, hiring, training, and promotions as part of the agreement. However, their people and processes contributed to the problems. Many departments treat each of these areas as independent of each other when in fact they impact each other. What do we, as a profession, need to do to assist departments under consent decrees, and what do we need to provide to departments in general so they do not come under a consent decree?
