Lecture Outline
I. Introduction--essential that police be held accountable for their actions
II. A definition of accountability
A. Having to answer for conduct
B. Definition leaves unanswered questions
1. Important distinction between accountability for:
a. police departments
b. individual officers
2. Who will hold police organizations and officers accountable?
3. Best means of achieving accountability for both organizations and individual officers
III. Basic issues in police accountability
A. What, how, and whom
1. Accountable for what they do, how well they control crime, maintain order, provide services to the public
2. Accountable for how they do their job, which includes:
a. performing tasks efficiently
b. complying with the law
c. treating all citizens with equal respect
3. The process to whom the police are accountable: public, mayors, governors, courts
B. "The three Es"
1. Effectiveness--whether police accomplish what they are supposed to do
a. do they effectively control crime?
b. are they successful in arresting offenders?
2. Efficiency-- whether they accomplish their tasks in a cost-effective manner
3. Equity--whether they accomplish their tasks in a fair manner; do they treat all citizens equally?
C. The dilemmas of policing in a democracy
1. Government agencies are accountable to the public (distinguishes democratic from totalitarian societies)
2. Police must answer to the public and to legal principles
3. The 3 Es often conflict
D. A historical perspective on accountability
1. Meaningful accountability is a relatively recent development
2. History: police were not accountable at all
a. were corrupt and inefficient
b. evaded duty, beat citizens without fear of discipline
c. elected officials in charge of the police were corrupt
d. had no standards for on the street behavior
e. had no standards of professionalism among chiefs
3. Late 1950s: procedures for accountability began to develop--Supreme Court imposed constitutional standards on routine police work
4. 1970s: police departments began to develop SOPs
5. 1980s: community policing placed new demands on police to be accountable
IV. Accountability for what the police do
A. The traditional approach
1. Police held accountable primarily for crime control
a. measures: crime rate, clearance rate, and response times
b. data are not reliable measures of police performance
2. Problems with traditional measures
a. UCR
i. is limited to 8 index crimes
ii. provides no data on several major categories of crime
(EX: white collar crime, organized crime, drug offenses)
iii. only includes reported crime
iv. officers unfound or do not record all reported crimes
v. records variations among departments
b. arrest data-- variations in arrest data recording among departments
c. clearance rates
i. data are not independently audited
ii. data can be manipulated
iii. crimes can be unfounded or improperly counted as cleared
d. crime rate and clearance rate data ignore other police activities
e. do not address quality of police services
(EX: citizen perceptions of how they are treated)
f. crime is a product of social factors beyond the control of the police
B. New measures of police service
1. Quality of life
a. measured with citizen surveys-- assess fear of crime and disorder
b. regular citizen surveys--perceptions of the police department
c. survey citizens who have had contact with the police--evaluate police performance
C. COMPSTAT: A new approach
1. Process
a. meetings with district commanders
b. current crime data is projected on a screen
i. computer-based data system keeps information about crime
ii. produces data on criminal activity within 24 hours of events
c. district commanders explain activities in their area, report what they are doing about crime trends
2. Holds middle-level police managers accountable for crime in their areas
V. Accountability for how the police do their job-internal and external mechanisms
VI. Internal mechanisms of accountability-primary responsibility for accountability lies within the department
VII. Supervision
A. Routine supervision
1. One of the central tasks of police management
2. For rank-and-file officers on the street, responsibility is left to sergeants
3. Supervision activities
a. regularly monitor officers under their command on a regular basis
b. in potentially serious incidents, sergeants appear at the scene
i. provide advice if needed
ii. if necessary, take command of the situation
c. review and approve written reports
i. advise officers if performance is less than satisfactory
ii. instruct officers on proper procedure
d. file reports of violation of departmental policy or officer misconduct
4. Problem affecting supervision
a. sergeants develop close ties with officers under their command
b. may be unwilling to criticize officers and exercise control and discipline
B. The impact of organizational culture
1. Meaningful discipline depends on the organizational culture of the department
2. Code of silence
a. officers are reluctant to report misconduct by other officers
b. when officers report misconduct
i. officers are not rewarded
ii. officers are often punished by the department
C. Close supervision
1. Goes beyond routine performance appraisal
2. Focuses on specific problems and takes extra steps to correct them
D. Written policies and reporting requirements
1. To hold officers accountable, management relies heavily on written reports (administrative rulemaking)
2. Strategy-- guide and control officer behavior
a. specifying proper conduct in writing
b. requiring officers to complete written reports on specific incidents
c. investigating to determine if officers have complied
3. Effectiveness--system of reports needs to be comprehensive
(EX: defining use of force broadly)
E. Performance evaluations
1. Standard technique for holding officers accountable
2. Designed to provide feedback to officers on their performance,
provides officer opportunity to improve if necessary
3. Used in considering officers for promotion
4. General problems
a. may fail to accurately assess an officer's real performance
b. do not reflect the work that officers do
c. are not used effectively for promotion or assignment selection
5. Technical problems
a. evaluation categories and criteria lack clarity
i. supervisors rate quality of work without clear measurement
ii. "halo effect"--high rating in one area affects other areas
iii. central tendency phenomenon
iv. leniency or inflation
VIII. Internal affairs units
A. Responsible for investigating alleged misconduct by officers
1. Reactive--response to citizen complaint or official report
2. Proactive
a. department has unverified evidence of possible misconduct
b. "stings"
3. Difficult position in police departments
a. face hostility from the rank and file
b. officers assigned to IAU regarded as "snitches" for the chief
c. officers feel the IAU is biased, favoring some officers and targeting others
4. Effectiveness factors
a. chief must communicate to officers that misconduct will not be tolerated
and follow up with meaningful discipline against guilty officers
b. need sufficient resources
c. training--many departments do not provide any formal training
B. The code of silence
1. Definition--unwillingness of police officers to report misconduct by other officers
2. Major part of the organizational culture of policing
3. Regarded as a major obstacle to police accountability
4. Few efforts to break the code of silence and punish officers for false testimony in misconduct investigations
C. Early warning systems
1. Management information system compiles and analyzesdata on problematic officer behavior
a. citizen complaints
b. police officer use of force reports
c. officers being named in suits against the department
d. other indicators
2. Identifies officers who seem to have recurring performance problems
3. Officers are given counseling or training designed to improve their performance
4. Empirical basis: small groups of officers receive disproportionate number of complaints--"problem-prone" officers
5. Variation in program components
a. selection criteria
i. some systems only use citizen complaints
ii. other systems use broad range of indicators
b. intervention
i. informal counseling by immediate supervisor
ii. training class
c. post-intervention monitoring
i. formal performance evaluations
ii. informal monitoring
6. Evaluation
a. effective in reducing citizen complaints and other problematic behavior
b. systems are extremely complex and require continual management attention
IX. Accreditation
A. Process of professional self-regulation used in almost all professions (law, medicine, education)
B. Formal system established in 1979
1. Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)
established minimum standards for all law enforcement agencies
2. Some standards are mandatory, others are optional
C. Advocates
1. View it as an essential aspect of any occupation that aspires to professional status
2. Self-governance is preferable to regulation by external groups
D. Limitations
1. Voluntary process--no penalty for not being accredited
2. Standards set minimum conditions--do not define optimum standards of excellence
3. Address formal aspects of administration--do not address specific content
4. Expensive and time-consuming
X. External mechanisms of accountability: the political process
A. Citizens control the police and other government agencies through the process
B. Executive branch:
1. Elected mayors, city managers, governors
2. Appoint chiefs, directors of state police, U.S. Attorney General
C. Legislative branch:
1. City councils, county board of commissioners, state legislators
2. Exercise control through budgets
D. Judicial branch
1. Serves as a check and balance on executive and legislative branch
2. Ensures compliance with the law
E. Only a few cities have special commissions to govern their police departments
XI. The courts
A. The Supreme Court and the police
1. Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
a. Court ruled that evidence gathered in an illegal search and seizure is inadmissible-- known as the "exclusionary rule"
b. violation of fourth Amendment rights--protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures"
c. applied exclusionary rule to state and local police
2. Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
a. guaranteed fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination
b. police must advise suspect of his/her rights
c. Miranda warning
i. right to remain silent
ii. right to have an attorney
iii. if cannot afford one, right to court-appointed attorney
d. Court found that police used coercive techniques
i. environment in police station is inherently coercive
ii. likely to induce suspects to waive their rights
3. Courts at all levels play some role in police accountability
a. at bail settings, preliminary hearings and trials
b. local judges rule on admissibility of evidence, also rule on other issues that impact police work
B. The impact of Supreme Court decisions
1. Political and legal controversy
a. police argued they were "handcuffed" in their crime control effort
b. studies on the exclusionary rule
i. rule does not limit crime-fighting capacity of the police
ii. rule largely confined to cases on how police obtained evidence
(EX: drug, gambling, weapons cases)
iii. few motions to suppress evidence are raised
iv. even fewer are granted
2. Positive effects of Supreme Court decisions
a. defined basic principles of due process
b. created penalties for police misconduct--basic mechanism of accountability
c. stimulated police reform--improvements in recruitment, training, supervision
d. increased public awareness about details of police procedure
e. helped maintain high standards of police professionalism
3. Limitations
a. Court cannot supervise day-to-day operations, cannot ensure individual officer compliance
b. most police work does not involve an arrest or reach court
c. police may not be informed about current court decisions
d. encourages evasion or lying by police officers
e. exercise of rights may become an empty formality
C. Civil suits against the police
1. Victims of police abuse can sue for civil damages
a. may sue in federal court under state or federal law
b. 42 U.S.C. 1983
2. Number of successful suits against the police has risen dramatically
3. Purpose of suits--to compensate victim(s) of harm done by misconduct
4. Little success
a. lawsuits are time-consuming, expensive and difficult to win
b. offer potential remedy only in cases of extreme harm
c. potential award for damages does not make litigation worthwhile
d. juries tend to be sympathetic to the police
e. neither individual officers nor departments bear the direct financial cost of losing
5. Rising cost of suits has prompted proactive steps to reduce misconduct; the result has been improvement in several areas
D. "Pattern or practice" suits
1. 1994 Violent Crime Control Act authorizes Justice Department to bring suits against departments where there is a pattern or practice of abuse of citizens' rights
2. Became powerful tool for achieving police accountability
3. Instead of traditional pattern of lawsuits for individual acts of misconduct, it
addresses general patterns
4. Instead of monetary damages, court-ordered reforms of police management practices
E. Injunctions
1. Sought in cases where police practices systematically violate citizen rights
(seek injunctions to stop the alleged practice)
2. Generally has not been an effective remedy for police misconduct
F. Criminal prosecution
1. Officers who violate the law can be prosecuted an criminals
2. Successful prosecution is difficult
a. local prosecutors work with police, reluctant to bring criminal charges against them
b. difficult to prove officer had criminal intent; officer can claim actions were legitimate exercise of police powers
c. important to distinguish between:
i. improper action: subject to internal discipline
ii. illegal action: prosecution must prove criminal intent
d. juries often sympathetic to police and suspicious of victims
3. By itself, it has a limited deterrent effect in departments where other effective controls do not exist
G. Summary
XII. Citizen oversight of the police
A. Civil rights groups
1. Believe departments fail to investigate citizen complaints thoroughly and fairly
2. Have demanded citizen oversight
B. Forms of citizen oversight
1. Class I
a. separate agency investigates complaints
b. makes recommendation about disposition to the chief
2. Class II
a. investigated by internal affairs
b. civilian review investigates, makes discipline recommendations
3. Class III
a. department is responsible for investigation and disposing of complaints
b. an unsatisfied complainant can appeal to citizen review procedure
4. Class IV
a. auditor systems
b. department retains full responsibility for handling citizen complaints
c. independent agency has authority to audit or monitor internal affairs
C. The roles of citizen oversight
1. Independent review of citizen complaints
a. assumption: investigators who are not sworn officers will be independent--investigations will be more fair, independent and unbiased
b. complaint procedure will be perceived as independent and thereby create greater confidence in the complaint process
2. Monitoring role: monitor complaint process and department policies and practices
3. Community outreach
a. hold meetings with community groups to explain complaint process
b. hear concerns about police problems
c. important for immigrant groups who do not:
i. understand American policing
ii. understand complaint process
iii. use English as their primary language
4. Policy review
a. use individual complaints to identify underlying police problems
b. recommend changes in department policies
5. Auditing the quality of complaint investigations where interviews between officers and citizens are recorded
a. review recordings to identify potential bias
b. identify inadequate investigations
D. Citizen review: pro and con
1. Opponents
a. intrudes on professional independence of the police
b. people who are not police officers are not qualified to review police operations
c. expensive and unnecessarily duplicates the work of internal affairs
d. internal affairs units sustain more complaints against officers
2. Proponents
a. serves to open up police departments
b. enhances public confidence in the complaint process
3. Evaluations
a. public confidence in the complaint process improved with citizen review procedure
b. complainants and officers thought review was biased against them
c. failure to use all of the powers it possesses
4. Effectiveness depends on:
a. agency's definition of role
b. resources
c. quality of staff
d. degree of political support from the community
E. "Blue ribbon" commissions
1. Form of external accountability
a. Wickersham Commission
b. President's Crime Commission
2. Functions
a. define minimum standards to seek improvements in departments
b. comprehensive in scope
i. address full range of police issues
3. Weaknesses
a. recommendations are only advisory
b. can be ignored by local officials
F. The news media
1. Role
a. inform the public--help them to make important political choices related to policing
b. expose serious police problems
2. Can contribute to police problems
a. emphasize sensational stories
i. do not provide good coverage of routine police activities
ii. these events are not dramatic
b. present a distorted picture of police work-- only focus on crime, ignore non-crime related aspects
c. emphasize negative aspects of policing
G. Public interest groups-roles:
1. Attack police misconduct
2. Define the rights of police officers
XIII. A mixed approach to police accountability
A. No single mechanism is the key to achieving police accountability
B. Internal mechanisms
1. strengths
a. internal
b. officials involved are close to the situation
2. weakness: officials are too close to the officers they have to monitor
C. External mechanisms
1. strength: . independent of the police
2. weakness: removed from activities they attempt to monitor
D. Current approach: mix of internal and external systems, reflects concept of checks and balances
XIV. Summary
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education