Police Accountability Research Articles

Liberatory Research: Bridging the Gap Between Community Organizing and Research

The North Carolina Black Leadership Organizing Collective (NCBLOC) began in 2015 and is in a 10-year process to develop Black-led movement organizations in North Carolina. Blu Lewis was one of the visionary architects of this initiative and refers to many of the ways we use research inside of the organization to work towards our goals. Felicia Arriaga joined NCBLOC as the network coordinator for one of NC BLOC’s projects called the NC Statewide Police Accountability Network in 2019, moved into supporting cross movement organizing within NC BLOC, and now is the Development Manager for NC BLOC. We dive into a discussion about research and organizing strategies, how we can redefine validation, how we can pair research with narratives that represent our communities, how our values can align with our research, and how we can combat white supremacy culture that shows up in our research practices.

Public Administration of Police Accountability and Transparency

Police accountability and transparency have been long-standing concerns in public administration, as the actions of law enforcement have a significant impact on the lives of citizens. This research focuses on exploring the ways in which police accountability and transparency can be improved, particularly through the use of technology and community engagement. The study begins by examining the current landscape of police accountability and transparency, highlighting the challenges and limitations of traditional methods of oversight. This includes a discussion of the issues related to police misconduct, use of force, and biased policing. The study then turns to exploring potential solutions, including the use of body-worn cameras, data analytics, and community policing strategies. One of the key findings of the research is the importance of community engagement in improving police accountability and transparency. This involves fostering trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, as well as providing opportunities for citizens to voice their concerns and provide feedback. The study also emphasizes the role of technology in facilitating transparency and accountability, particularly through the use of body-worn cameras and data analytics. Overall, this research contributes to the growing body of literature on police accountability and transparency in public administration. It underscores the need for innovative solutions that leverage technology and community engagement to promote greater trust and transparency between law enforcement and the public.

Citizen Willingness to Hold a Police Officer Criminally Responsible for the Use of Deadly Force: Examining the Correlates of Finding Guilt

Despite increased public attention on police killings of citizens and police accountability in recent years, few studies have specifically examined the support for convicting and incarcerating a specific police officer who was accused of wrongfully killing a citizen. The current study examines the attitudes of undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university about a case involving a white police officer who worked for the university police department and recently shot and killed an unarmed Black citizen during a traffic stop. Specifically, it examines support for convicting and incarcerating this officer, who was charged but ultimately went unpunished, and the factors that are related to support for, opposition to, or neutrality towards holding the officer criminally responsible. The findings indicate that respondents who perceive police officers as soldiers in a war on crime and hold symbolically racist attitudes were more likely to oppose or be neutral about the officer being held responsible. White respondents, while not more likely to oppose the conviction and incarceration of the officer, were more likely to be neutral toward the outcome of the case, indicating that white indifference might be a major barrier to holding police officers accountable for their improper use of deadly force.

CORRUPTION: A LONG-LASTING HISTORICAL DISEASE INFECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE POLICE

Police actions require a high level of integrity, accountability, and transparency. “Police integrity” refers to the demonstration of the qualities of reliability, honesty, and respectability in police work. These are the most important qualities required for all police officers when carrying out their duties and that are necessary to maintain trust in law enforcement agencies. “Police accountability” refers to the high expectation placed on police officers and police departments to act responsibly within the boundaries of the law in ensuring the safety and security of citizens. Transparency in policing aims to make both rules and procedures easily accessible to the public, unless there is a legal reason for keeping them confidential. If police departments do not strictly adhere to the principles of integrity, accountability, and transparency, the risk is that their members will feel less inhibited to abuse their legal powers for personal benefit. Police corruption is, therefore, a specific form of police misconduct aimed at obtaining personal benefits, gained through a criminal modus operandi. The purpose of this article is to discuss and analyse police corruption and to recommend measures which can effectively prevent, combat, and reduce this problem.

A Study on Police Accountability and Custodial Violence in India

The present study aims to critically analyse the cases of custodial violence in the nation and also crucially examine the reasons of custodial deaths in India. The study attempted to enrich the existing literature on “A Study on police accountability and custodial violence in India”. In the study, the custodial violence has been divided into three categories namely physical, sexual and psychological. Various reasons have been encountered for the custodial deaths such as suicide, death due to treatment in the hospital, injuries sustained prior to custody, physical assault by police, while escaping from custody, road accidents connected with the journey etc. The study gives various recommendations to improve the police administration and foster the need for reforms in the working of police officials.

“It’s all about covering your . . .”: The unintended consequences of police accountability measures

Policing faces increased accountability measures, influencing officers to engage in “covering your ass” and over-documentation. In this qualitative study of police officers across three Canadian provinces, we unpack the “covering your ass” mentality by exploring the paperwork burden as an unintended consequence of movements toward greater policing accountability. We find that covering your ass leads officers to complete paperwork to protect themselves from personally being investigated. They use paperwork to ensure they overcome any legal vulnerabilities by justifying their actions and explaining their interpretations of other officers’ actions. We present policy implications of these findings tied to police accountability, the impacts of covering your ass, and the resulting paperwork burden.

Primordial Brains and Bodies: How Neurobiological Discourses Shape Policing Experiences

This article demonstrates how the broader social development to understand behaviour and personhood as shaped by neurobiology forms a predominant narrative among police officers. Drawing on an ethnography of the Dutch police force and 73 interviews with officers, I examine first how they use neurobiological terms to describe and account for their embodied sensations as well as civilian behaviour. Second, I describe the functions these narratives have, that is, why officers use them. Finally, I show how neurobiological discourses are learned and (re)produced during training. Results indicate that officers invoke neurobiology both as facilitator of and explanation for action. The latter raises questions as to what extent neurobiological discourse obscures police responsibility and accountability. A more thorough understanding of how neurobiological discourses are used to understand and account for actions is relevant, given the growing pressures on public professionals to legitimise their work.

Citizen Cooperation with the Police: Evidence from Contemporary Guatemala

Community policing, and citizen cooperation with law enforcement more broadly, can improve local security outcomes by providing decentralized mechanisms for police accountability to local citizens. We hypothesize that five factors—alignment of citizen/police interests, relative costs of cooperation, costs of crime, prevalence of others’ cooperation, and perceived police efficacy—comprise a decision framework that guides citizens’ choices regarding whether to share information with law enforcement. We find evidence for this framework using rich survey and survey experimental data from a large nation-wide survey of Guatemalans and municipal administrative data. Our results indicate that increasing police efficacy, witness protection, and neighborhood trust boost the odds of cooperation with police by up to 55%. At a time when conversations about the relationship between community and police are widespread, this research offers insights into conditions under which cooperation between community members and law enforcement is most likely to occur.

Police Accounts of Body‐Worn Camera Footage In News Media

People offer accounts in response to actions that are subjected to valuative inquiry. Recordings of police actions captured on body‐worn camera (BWC) video can become subject to valuative inquiry when footage is publicly released. This footage may possibly undermine police legitimacy. Managing legitimacy is a basic rationale for why police provide accounts in response to their conduct. Proponents of BWCs assert that the devices enhance legitimacy and, while police have long used accounts to justify their conduct, less is known about how body cameras affect police accountability in practice. Drawing from Scott and Lyman's accounts theory framework, this qualitative, exploratory study examines official police accounts as both outcomes of police accountability in practice and as provided in the context of news media coverage of publicly released body‐worn camera footage. This allows us to ask the following questions: What types of accounts have police officials provided in news media reports in the context of publicly released BWC footage? And, more generally, what insight might an analysis of police accounts provide about accountability in relation to the implementation of BWCs? A key finding reveals that the timing of police accounts varied quite considerably, and that accounts were usually not static. The findings provide some general insight into what kinds of actions captured on body camera recordings constitute acceptable use of force by officers, even in situations when police actions resulted in death. This study also provides a small empirical window into when and how police officials provide accounts in response to publicly released body camera footage.

Police Accountability, Oversight and Integrity to Enhance Professionalism in the Police Service

Police Accountability, Oversight and Integrity to Enhance Professionalism in the Police Service

The Police, Extrajudicial Killings and Imperatives for Reforms in the Nigerian Fourth Republic

Extrajudicial killings attributed to personnel of the Nigerian Police in the conduct of their constitutional duties and responsibilities have become prevalent in recent times. They have been accused of human rights violations, torture, brutality, and unlawful killings of varying proportions. This palpable, yet injurious trend has become a strain on effective policing and security in Nigeria. This paper examines the role of the Nigeria Police Force in extrajudicial killings in the course of discharging their duties since the return to civilian rule in 1999 and how Police reforms can help increase police accountability. The paper was anchored on the organizational theory of police behavior and adopts a qualitative approach by reviewing the literature on extrajudicial killings by the Nigerian police as available in peer-reviewed journal articles, government reports, media reports, newspapers, and international agencies reports. The findings show that the Nigerian Police have been largely complicit in extrajudicial killings. It also shows that organizational deficits such as corruption, lack of investigative infrastructure, lack of human rights training, poor working conditions, poor internal control, and the often-abused Order 237 are major factors that enhance the perpetuation of the incidence of extrajudicial killings by the Police. The study concluded that without a sincere approach toward reforming the Police, extrajudicial killings might become a dominant narrative. Therefore, the paper recommends that a comprehensive security reform of the Nigerian Police should be carried out in conjunction with the private sector and Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria.

Make believe: Police accountability, lying and anti-blackness in the inquest of Sean Rigg

In 2008, Sean Rigg, a 40-year-old Black British man died in England and Wales police custody. It was not until 4 years later at the inquest that it transpired one of the police officers involved, the custody sergeant, PS Paul White gave false information. White had claimed he saw Rigg in the van upon his arrival however CCTV footage demonstrated this did not happen. Following a deconstructive approach this paper examined the inquest transcripts to explore how belief and the possibility of being mistaken was integral to the account White provided. It is the ambiguity of truth/fiction that is significant in legal investigations for it comes to produce the justifications for the deaths of Black people in England and Wales.

Police relational accountabilities: The paralysis of police accountability?

Abstract This article examines the new relational accountabilities of Chief Constables, Police, and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Police and Crime Panels (PCPs) in England and Wales. Referring to a number of recent reports and reviews, the discussion initially focuses on the effectiveness of these relationships and, in particular, the inefficiency of PCPs. Using new empirical data obtained through interviews with senior stakeholders in policing at regional and national levels, and relevant persons in Government, this research shows PCPs are impotent and ineffective. This article develops current understanding, showing that PCPs may cause a new unforeseen consequence. Namely, the exercise of accountability and the governance of policing may be unusually reactive to the ‘one-to-one’ accountability relationship between PCCs and Chief Constables. This research is all the more important in light of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services finding in 2022 that there is an ‘atmosphere of mistrust and fear’ between PCCs and Chief Constables and The Police Foundation reporting ‘a crisis of confidence’, recommending ‘root and branch reform’ (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services 2022). Such recommendations are made to strengthen the exercise of accountability and the governance of policing. Specifically, the Home Secretary is encouraged to review the Policing Protocol Order (2011) and issue a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure ‘effective, constructive working relationships’ are not just a quixotic pursuit but a practical reality that safeguards the governance of policing.

경찰책임제도의 실태분석 및 개선방안

It is true that South Korea’s police accountability mechanisms, unlike those of United States and United Kingdom, have been not systematically established and that academic research on the police accountability mechanisms has been also very poor. The purpose of this study is first to analyze previous studies published recently in South Korea and foreign countries on the police accountability mechanisms, second to summarize the police accountability mechanisms of western countries, third to explain six types of the police accountability mechanisms of South Korea and, fourth to suggest the measures for improving the police accountability mechanisms of South Korea. In particular, this study presented six types of police accountability mechanisms in South Korea: legal, political, administrative, societal, communal, and judicial. In order to improve the police accountability system in South Korea, the measures to strengthen the internal police accountability mechanisms and strengthen the external police accountability mechanisms have been proposed. First, in order to strengthen the internal police accountability mechanisms, it is necessary to strengthen the performance evaluation of the police department, introduce the early warning system, strengthen the education and training of police officers, and operate the existing internal police accountability mechanisms more systematically. Second, in order to strengthen the external police accountability mechanisms, it is necessary to activate the police supervision system, activate the police ombudsman system of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, establish the police accountability mechanisms step by step, and promote research on the police accountability mechanisms.

Through an Australian Lens: Exploring the Impact of Body-Worn Cameras on Police–Community Relations

Abstract As the police and law enforcement community globally continue to increase the implementation of body-worn cameras (BWCs), there is a building body of knowledge as to the advantages and disadvantages of this tool for policing. Corresponding to the more widespread use of BWCs by police officers is an increase in the areas and level of scrutiny that are caught in the cascading impact of their use. One of the much-lauded potential benefits for the BWCs was the expectation of building positive relationships between officers and the citizens of the community they police. This paper presents findings from a comprehensive research evaluation of the Australian New South Wales Police Force BWC initiative. The findings from the study related to understanding the perspective of the impact of BWCs on the relationship between community members and police officers are presented and discussed. The findings indicate a high level of optimism and positive experience with the impact of the use of BWCs, specifically as it relates to change of behaviour and transparency and accountability of police and members of the public. The study offers a contribution to understanding the role of BWCs in progressing police legitimacy, from both the public and police perspectives in a 21st-century democratic society.

Police Unionism, Accountability, and Misconduct

Recent discussions of police violence in the United States and the corresponding lack of accountability have shone a light on a highly debated agent opposing police reform—police unions. Although police unionism continues to be an understudied area, a recent wave of empirical investigations, both qualitative and quantitative, have contributed to a nascent understanding of the ways in which police union mechanisms facilitate police misconduct and violence. Accordingly, in this review we first discuss the origins of police unionism in the United States, illustrating how historical forces, including racial animus, have shaped the existing landscape. Then, we highlight significant empirical work exploring the relationship between police unionism and misconduct. Thereafter, we review the potential intervening mechanisms, which are employed in ways to reduce disciplinary consequences of misconduct and excessive use of force, undermine oversight of the police, and limit police transparency. We end with a set of recommendations on future avenues for research.

The Effects of Body-Worn Cameras on Self-Initiated Police Encounters

Beginning in the summer of 2014, a series of controversial deaths in the US, often involving white officers and unarmed minority men, contributed to the growing debate about the need for increased transparency and accountability in policing. Central to the debate has been the call for more body-worn cameras (BWCs), a widely adopted technology that promises numerous benefits through real-time recording of police-public encounters. However, critics of this technology claim that increased surveillance of their behavior may lead to de-policing where officers choose to reduce the quality and/or quantity of their self-initiated police work. This claim has recently received empirical scrutiny in the context of the two main self-initiated activities underlying police work: foot patrols and traffic stops. However, the studies have mainly been outcome-orientated (e.g., stop and frisk or issuance of a citation) rather than activity-focused. The de-policing claim is tested here using data from a lengthy, quasi-experimental evaluation of BWCs in a large US police department. The findings show that the number of foot patrols and traffic stops conducted did not vary based on whether an officer wore a BWC or not. Policy and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

POLICE REFORM IN DIVIDED TIMES

POLICE REFORM IN DIVIDED TIMES

Dynamics of an American countermovement: Blue Lives Matter

AbstractThe social movement‐countermovement relationship is most often one of competition. The subject of police reform has become more complex after calls for greater restrictive police policies and the emergence of Blue Lives Matter. This study demonstrates how Blue Lives Matter acts as a countermovement to police reform, frame it in a historical context, explain why it appeals to sympathizers, and illustrate how it interacts with opposing groups and individuals. This study also assesses how Blue Lives Matter operates in direct opposition to Black Lives Matter and efforts for greater police accountability. The central theme of this literature addresses how the Blue Lives Matter Movement addresses competition, criticisms, and attitudes of Blue Lives Matter adherents and detractors in local and national contexts. This study questions if reconciliation between the stated objectives and tactics of the countermovement is possible without a change in police behavior and law enforcement practices. Conflict theories identify social constructionism as a process in social and countermovements.

Predictors of Citizens' Satisfaction and Trust in Police as a Function of Good Governance and Cooperative Culture

The role of police institutions in developing law-and-order situations and protecting citizens’ lives and valuables is of immense importance worldwide. Based on the social learning theory, the current study examines the extent to which police performance, accountability, and moral alignment with the community develop and enhance the trust among the citizens via an underlying mechanism of their satisfaction level with police institutions based on their services’ delivery. Data were collected from the citizens of various administrative units in Jakarta, Indonesia. Structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3.3.3 software was applied to assess the variables' psychometric properties and verify the study's hypothesized links. The results revealed the significant and positive impact of police performance, accountability, and alignment with moral values on citizens' trust directly and via an underlying mechanism of citizens' satisfaction. However, the intensity of the results varied, and the accountability of the police was the strongest predictor of citizens' trust. In addition, the current study brings valuable insights for academicians and practitioners to focus more on training police officials to make them responsible for fulfilling their obligations towards the citizens based on their higher level of recognition of accountability towards the nation.