The Role of the Citizen Oversight in Policing, Essay Example

Elaborate on the Role of the Citizen Oversight in Policing, Comparing the Effectiveness of Citizen Oversight, and Inherent Problems in Investigating Citizen Complaints

Citizens of counties and cities throughout the United States make every effort make police accountable for their police powers including justification of “force, officer misconduct, domestic violence, false arrest and harassment.” (“Tacoma Human Rights Commission”). There are independent offices outside police department in every major city and some smaller cities set up to deter police to keep police department in check for their actions. A citizen review board particularly comprised by the city council reviews complaints filed by citizens with regards to police conduct. The city manager is in charge of regularly reviewing such complaints and making recommendations whether police officers should come to review for any complaints made against them.

Civilian or citizen oversight has been seen as favorable and consistent with a democratic society since police seem to have more power than the natural citizen. These oversight programs take complaints against the police and investigate them. They further review the complaints, monitor them and audit them. This is seen as a proactive stance to systematic problems within the policing organization itself. There are many factors that hinder the civilian support though:

• “Political support
• Police corruption
• Activist support
• Resources
• Management and leadership
• Public attitudes” (Miller, 2002)

Some researchers state civilian involvement is only needed in police stations where there are periods of transition happening or in developing countries. Oversight actually impacts the kind and number of complaints received. Perez states for civilian oversight to be effective the oversight must be totally independent (2008). Though in the same breath he states the people of the United States must have confidence in the police powers of their officers regardless of the legitimacy factor of their internal affairs.

Citizen oversight gives the people the form of democracy that was taken away by having police powers govern them totally without avail. Though they claim to be here to protect the most basic fundamental rights of citizens they have the position to abuse such powers. Oversight mechanisms are put in place with citizen oversight to make police officers directly accountable to the public citizens for sustained abuses of police powers.

Effectiveness of Citizen Oversight Programs as a Management Tool and an Early Warning Device

Citizen oversight is considered an ‘early warning device’ for police intervention or police abuse of powers because it keeps police from continuously abusing powers and their abuse from escalating. The means justifies the ends by keeping a close eye on their track by having a constant eye on their daily dealings with the public with regards to how citizens are treated. Citizens must be treated accordingly to the law and human rights. The independent agency monitors the complaints and whether it will be investigated including disposition of the complaint. They determine if the complaint will be forwarded to the Police Department for further investigation. The review board has authority “to request classification of a complaint within (7) days of an initial complaint being filed and if not complied with the Police Chief must mandate in writing why the classification was denied. This gives total accountability to the review board and power to the board. The review board has total power to make recommendations if it does not agree with the classification of the Police Chief after the (7) day waiting period. The review board has authority to hold hearings with regards to citizen complaints and the public has the authority to be present at these open hearings.

There are several chains of commands an allegation of misconduct or police abuse must go through to be either sustained or un-sustained before the decision is made. This process takes time. With the time of the process come heat put on the accused officer and his Chief Officer whilst under investigator. Hence citizen oversight and the process are very effective of a management tool to keep police officers on their tools to abide by the Rules of Conduct afforded to officers in their position. When several allegations of misconduct have been filed against officers of a police station there can be some means of supposition of some kind of shadiness occurring within the department which is an early warning sign or precursor to unethical behavior being committed in the police department. It is up to the citizen committee to conduct an investigation to uncover such unethical practices and hold the police officers accountable. The Office of Professional Standards and Police Conduct are responsible for making decisions about unethical behaviors of police officers on duty. The auditor can sit in on the investigation and make recommendations to policies and procedures to fit the board if there is a fine line between unethical behavior and ethical behavior.

How the Sustain Rate Directly Affects Citizen Oversight Agencies

The sustain rate simply questions whether there is enough “supporting evidence of an allegation or complaint to justify disciplinary action against a police officer.” (Hickman, 2006). Obviously the higher the sustain rate the better the ratings and chance for the citizen oversight agencies to have police officers disciplined for their negligent or wrong acts whilst on the job. It goes to say if an independent operation has some control over holding the police department accountable thorough various measures and their success rate is dependent upon their success rate then the higher their success rate the potential their future success rate rests on their progress with present success rates. They must keep the community involvement and the avid workers involved in the progress to ensure future success of police accountability.

Statistics show in many large and small cities approximately, “thirty-four percent (34% were not sustained and only eight (8%) were sustained”. (Hickman, 2006). With these percentages, this makes it very difficult for the job of citizen review panels in the future to hold police officers accountable for their actions of misconduct. “Twenty-five percent (25%) were unfounded. (Hickman, 2006). The volume of complaints sampled was in the nature of about 2,100.

Represents 2000-2004 Reported Officer Misconduct National Reports

Albuquerque Official Website http://www.cabq.gov/progress/governmental-excellence-effectiveness/dcc-49/indicator-49-2

The sustain rate can be affected by other factors besides unfounded allegations. Available funding influences the sustain rate dramatically because without proper resources to conduct investigations there cannot be proper investigations and proper results validated. Sometimes collaboration with neighboring universities is a means to obtain analytical data needed for investigations at a low or free cost to the citizen review board. Often complaint resolution procedures such as ADR are used in lieu of discipline hence the infraction is not reported as a sustainable event. Citizen appeals further influences sustain rates causing them to go higher if the appeal is won. Using a variety of data collection instrument will ensure the sustain rates are valid and reported accurately. When review boards are made up of officers the integrity of the data can be severely compromised due to bias. For example Berkley Police Department has a strict regulation that no police officer can sit on their citizen review board to restrict bias evaluations. It has been found that when the Police Chief rather than the Internal Affairs Division makes the disciplinary determinations there may be room for bias. As with the Portland, OR division, the PIAD is in charge of all citizen review board disciplinary complaint recommendations.

What other Issues are Important in Discussing Citizen Review of Police Conduct

Other important issues would be the ones investigated directly by the auditors. These issues have direct impact upon the police officers for they are bound by the recommendations of the auditors with relation to complaints and deaths.

Establishing a sustaining oversight commission board is an important issue to discuss with relation to citizen review of police conduct. Organizational and political developments will constantly challenge the continuous growth of these entities. Low support from community members, legal issues and poor visibility led to the demise of the first Washington, D.C. citizen review board in 1973. It appears ineffectiveness had been a damper on many agencies that have established review boards since the 1970’s. In 2001, passed through legislation came an informal way to solve complaints. This made the review boards much stronger in the communities.

Political support has been a vehement factor in the support or demise of civilian police power review boards. In Northern Ireland Ombudsman was formed under the directive in 1992 for the protection of human rights. In South Africa the Independent Complaints Directorate was formed to ensure police reforms for their country.

In the 1960’s two successful plights by police unions have led to the demise of citizen review boards in the United States. Police in the states fought vehemently against citizen review boards by independent agencies run by the people. Police leadership was the main key in weakening the power of civilian leadership roles.

Community activists such as those involved in the human rights laws are excellent sources for civilian oversight entities in the United States and Europe. American Civil Liberties Union has been a wonderful grace and leader for the civilian leadership activists with civilian police powers. On the flip side, a lack of support from human rights groups has created the demise of civilian police group reviews.

The attitude of the public further plays an important role whether the resources will be available to fund the investigations of the independent organizations.

Conclusion

“The development of successful oversight agencies relies on strong leadership and management. This is important for creating a positive profile for an agency and winning support. It is also important if agencies are to properly fulfill their mandate and provide an effective service.” (Miller, 2002).

References

Tacoma Human Rights Commission (2010) Retrieved May 20, 2010 from, http://www.ci.tacoma.wa.us/cronews/CitizenOversightProposal.pdf

Hickman, M. (2006) Citizen Complaints about Police Use of Force Retrieved May 20, 2010 from, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/ccpuf.pdf

Albuquerque Official Website (2007) Retrieved May 20, 2010 from, http://www.cabq.gov/progress/governmental-excellence-effectiveness/dcc-49/indicator-49-2

Miller, J. (2002) Global Meeting on Civilian Oversight (2002) Retrieved May 21, 2010 from, http://www.vera.org/download?file=93/Civilian%2Boversight.pdf