THE ROLE OF CITIZEN OVERSIGHT IN POLICING

The role of citizen oversight in policing

The role of citizen oversight in policing

Introduction

Citizen oversight on police conduct has been developed to response complaint of citizens regarding misconduct of police behavior. Citizen oversight is a mechanism to collect input by citizens and process towards fair investigates in by individuals who are not police officers. Citizen oversight has achieved great appreciation by peoples in past decades. Today more than hundred different citizen oversights are working over law enforcement agencies in America.

Citizen oversight of police has rapidly become a popular mechanism for responding to the problem of police officer misconduct. Although there is a great deal of national interest in the role of citizen oversight, relatively little is known about the effect that citizen involvement in the police complaint process has on levels of police complainant satisfaction. The implementation of the citizen-managed process successfully improved levels of satisfaction with the complaint process, but had no statistically significant impact on levels of satisfaction with complaint outcomes.

Discussion and analysis

The main reason of building citizen oversight is to provide a mechanism for citizens by whom they can send their suggestion and complaints regarding police officers to a separate body which has no relation with police department and it fairly investigate their complaints. In many cases it has been observed that citizen oversight helps a lot in diffusion of situation of violence and confusion and strengthen the relationship between citizens and police. In United States there is a significant rise seen in citizen oversight of police. Now with the previous experiences, citizens and administration of police should work to reduce conflicts and increase cooperation between police and citizens.(Buren, 2006)

Different models of oversight

Oversight models suggested by different peoples more or less same, however they can be categorized in following different types.

Allegations of misconduct of police investigate by citizens and they suggest their finding to police administration.

Allegations investigate by police officer and they build their findings. Then, citizens give their opinion on these findings for approval or rejection to police administration.

The police department accepts and examines complaints of citizen and a separate check the fairness and thoroughness of the whole process.

Lack of Experience

Members of over sight system has no work experience as a police officers, so they face difficulty in determining that police officers involved in misconduct or not. Citizens are not commonly familiar with relevant laws governing behavior of police officer nor do they know the nature of police judgment, the methods engaged in training of officers, or the whole circumstances of an occasion that can persuade behavior of officers. (Warlker, 2001)

Officers frequently argue that medical boards composed on doctors and physicians, and only attorneys examine lawyers for misbehavior. So officers only from law enforcement agencies should be on board to investigate police officers for their misconduct. However, many officers from law enforcement agencies are working on citizen and officers reviews to address these concerns and find ways to improve relation between police and ...