Police Oversight: Civilians monitoring law enforcement
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The police is present to serve and protect the civilian population, to enforce the law. Internal affairs departments have become an important mechanism to deal with police misconduct. But what guarantees that cases of police misconduct are effectively and fully prosecuted? How is it possible to evaluate whether law enforcement procedures and strategies are those best suited to the public security needs of the population? What to do when law enforcement signifies more than rooting out a few bad apples? The answers to these issues have come in many forms, but with one single definition: Civilian oversight of law enforcement. Among the most notable examples of police oversight are Special Counsel Merrick Bobb, of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, a civilian who was first contacted by the LASD in response to a number of expensive law suits brought about by police brutality. Merrick Bobb has since devoted many years to monitoring police activities, issuing reports every six months and heading PARC the Police Assessment Resource Center that provides training for police oversight agencies and civilian complaints offices across the United States of America. From across the ocean comes the most notable example of police oversight, in the form of one extraordinary woman, Nuala O’Loan, who heads a fully independent office of 125 employees that includes an investigative team and has developed its own training course. Mrs Nuala O’Loan has the power to arrest police officers.
Comunidad Segura talked to both Merrick Bobb and Nuala O’Loan and continues to cover the topic that is bound to grow as law enforcement becomes more accountable to civil society. Read Further: The Center for Sudies on Public Security and Citizenship, CESeC, at the University of Candido Mendes PARC, the Police Assessment Resource Center The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland Article by Merrick Bobb: |
Room to grow: civilian oversight of law enforcement in the United States, an interview with Special Counsel Merrick Bobb The nuts and bolts of police oversight, an interview with the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. Police Oversight, moving beyond the bad apple approach More and better police ombudsmen in a nation with high statistics of police deaths, complaints offices need a closer relation with the public. |
“External controls over the police are a necessity, they are important for ensuring police accountability, and we are not speaking of merely an investigation into individual cases of wrongdoing, I speak of the very real need in society for analysis and investigation into overall police procedures, in a fair and impartial manner.” The words are from Julita Lemgruber, sociologist, former Police Ombudsman of the State of Rio de Janeiro and researcher from the Center for Sudies on Public Security and Citizenship, CESeC, at the University of Candido Mendes.
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