Essay on "Oversight in Policing"

Essay 7 pages (2318 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Oversight in Policing

Police wrongs are real and abhorrent when they are brought to light. For every wrong doing that comes to light there are hundreds of others that are unreported. Largely this is due to the fact that there is no remedy to take action against the erring officers. Some cases like the L.A. Rampart scandal, Kathryn Johnston shooting, make headlines and it is a fact that over 26,000 complaints of police misconduct were filed in the year 2002. There was found to be substance in two thousand cases and hence police misconduct is a fact that has to be controlled. It is also argued that punishing erring officers after the deed is not a satisfactory method of prevention. Rather there is a need to create a vigilant community that can prevent the happening of atrocities. Many remedies have been suggested and with community policing, legal measures, the citizen oversight is seen to be the remedy for the victim. (Simmons, 2008)

The definition of oversight and the need for it:

Citizen oversight is the method of transferring the investigation of police misconduct to a separate entity that is independent of the police department. (Simmons, 2008) This is not a new development. Back in 1960 there were created citizen review boards that was functional and which was expected to bridge the gap between policing and the civil community. These boards were expected to bring out the anomalies in the functioning of the police. This in practice failed. Many earlier remedied failed and hence the oversight method is invoked. The principal provision is that a citizen who is the victim of police harassment can now sue for compensation.

(a) The role of citizen oversight in policing:

There are multiple remedies available to the citizen other than oversight and these have proved to be ineffectual. Legal remedies include civil litigation under state or federal law under 42 U.S.C. [section] 1983, over constitutional rights like wise criminal prosecutions for police misconduct can be initiated. But officers have been shielded by the departments and prosecutions are rare. The reason is that the Prosecutors who are the authority in overseeing the prosecution hail from the same department and thus be lenient to them. Internal affairs also suffer from the same effect. Thus the investigations into police misconduct do not bear fruit. Laws like the 'Police Accountability Act of 1991' provide legal remedies including criminal and civil liability. But the Judicial authority has limited scope for example the Supreme Court's decision in Los Angeles v. Lyons, laid down that while the private can sue for money damages, there is no way for the court to prevent future harm or misconduct. (Simmons, 2008)

This was compounded by the Bush administration blocking judicial review of the agreements. The citizen oversight is a negotiated model. The citizen thus has to take preventive action against possible harassment not only of the individual but of the community. The primary duty of the citizen therefore is to participate in the community policing and enforcement of the community policing principle which will cooperative model produces much better liaison between the police and public. Therefore it is a must for citizens not only to participate in the process of bringing the erring officers to book and preventing atrocities, but also be aware of the need to be a member of the community policing concept. Thus treating the police with dignity and helping them bring erring members of the society to book would be the better idea. The concept of citizen oversight can go hand in hand only with the community policing concept. It was tried out in many states including Chicago where the effort was made in getting the residents involved in police activities. It was suggested that like a police officer, the residents too must be brought on board, and they often do not prove readily cooperative. The poor and disenfranchised neighborhoods, residents often have a history of bad relation with the police. The police thus are thought to be, brutal. (Skogan; Hartnett, 1997)

The Chicago experiment even had a policy of having beat meetings where in churches and schoolrooms patrolmen of a locality spent time with the people of the neighborhood to exchange views and share information and the public also learned about police procedure. It also humanized the police. Though there was some distrust, and fear, on the overall the effect was salutary. (Skogan; Hartnett, 1997) This coupled with the settlement strategy that aims at providing relief and prevention of misconduct, the citizen has a duty to bring to light the errors committed by the officers through this forum and also take action where he or she has been victimized.

(b) Comparing the effectiveness of citizen oversight:

Though there is a great value in citizen participation the, citizen oversight has not measured up to the mark. Because considered in isolation it dies not tend to be effective. It according to the experts has not had any visible effect in checking police misconduct. (Simmons, 2008) This method is effective only after the event has occurred and does not provide for checking or preventing police misconduct. (Simmons, 2008) The example of the system failing can be seen with 'community policing' began as short-term effort to create a police minority relations. In one way it was an effort to mask the ineffectiveness of the system to control the police. The community policing worked will where there was homogenous neighborhoods. (Fielding, 1995)

The same can be the result with citizen oversight. But it can be at par with the other traditional methods and can be used at best to asses the culpability of the officers and also providing for compensation. The Community policing creates awareness of the community in improving the general quality of police work and ensures a partnership between the police and the community. Thus there must be coupled the principle of Central to community policing along with the citizen oversight to make the move meaningful. Where there is concerted action and remedy prevention can be achieved. The police must be moved from being a bureaucracy to become an effective partner in society. (Kenney; McNamara, 1999)

However there is great resentment from the police on civilian authorities audit for the police work. In the Eugene city proposal for example the city constituted a commission and the proposal of the Eugene Police Commission proposal for the police oversight, for example came out with the system proposed a professional auditor to monitor investigations of police complaints and a seven-member civilian review board that will monitor the auditor. (Alexander, 2005)

Thus a person would file a complaint against a police employee at the independent auditor's office. The auditor can pass award to the police chief. It is the police chief who decides the disciplinary action. There is also provision for the Police employees to lodge complaints against their colleagues. It is to be noted that the police opposes the civilian panel. There was a critical audit of and convictions of police officers on young black man's allegation of racial profiling. This together with the public outcry has made inroads into citizen participation. (Alexander, 2005) In any case the final say will rest with the police. Therefore citizen oversight by itself is not enough and the citizen has to have all legal remedies open to him or her still.

(c) Inherent problems in investigating citizen complaints.

The major problem is that the authorities are not willing to treat the police in an equal footing with other departments. That is one of the reasons for the poor investigations into the police misbehavior. For example New York City shows large incidence of police misconduct but there has been no action by the department of justice against the New York City Police Department. Another anomaly is the concept of the police misconduct that do not arise to a 'pattern' or 'practice' of misconduct. (Simmons, 2008) The primary change has to come with the police department's complaint process for citizen complaints against its officers. It is not known if the federal has ever caused accountability in policies and practices. (Simmons, 2008)

There is no consistent formula or method suggested for implementing citizen intervention and it is always the lawsuits from smaller cities that bring about the knowledge of the actual state of affairs. There is also a lack of will in interfering with local practices. Thus the executive still has the investigative power over unconstitutional practices. Thus policing and its regulation are local functions; the federal government is unable to cause intervention. There is also the apprehension from the police men that their interests will be affected by these measures. The 'Early Warning Tracking Systems' fo0r example could affect the personnel's career and the officers are required to "initiate intervention." (Simmons, 2008)

There are also state agreements which are contrary to the doctrine of citizen involvement. The use of force agreement which authorizes the police to use force -- as in Los Angeles called the consent decree where, use-of-force investigations are… READ MORE

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