A panel of experts conducted a review on the effectiveness of law enforcement civilian oversight, presenting their findings at the 22nd National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement conference in Albuquerque.
“Police oversight has gained substantial attention. It helps to promote democratic and respectful policing,” said Joseph De Angelis, an assistant professor of criminology and sociology at the University of Idaho.
The amount of oversight agencies has increased since 1993, as there are now 144 in the U.S. that help bring accountability to their police departments, he said.
Five goals of civilian oversight are improving public trust, ensuring accessible complaint processes, promoting fair and thorough investigations, increasing transparency and deterring police misconduct, the report states.
Brian Buchner, past president of NACOLE, said more academics are needed to conduct police oversight research in order to catch up to policy practices. All civilian oversight agencies are different, and it is hard to categorize them, De Angelis said, because of the different political, social and cultural tensions that shape the development of a particular agency.
Richard Rosenthal, a previous law enforcement monitor for the Denver Police Department, said oversight should be proportionate to the amount of improvement needed for a police department.
“It should employ a similar philosophy in how we engage with police agencies, proportionate to how they use force against their citizens,” he said.
If a police force is more aggressive and needs comprehensive reforms, then the oversight agency should be more aggressive in its tactics to hold police accountable, Rosenthal said.
The Albuquerque Police Oversight Board implements a review-based system, while the Civilian Police Oversight Agency conducts investigation-focused procedures.
A review-focused model assesses the quality of internal investigations, makes recommendations to police executives and is headed by a group of citizen volunteers who hold public meetings to collect community input and facilitate community outreach, according to the report.
According to the report, a review board is strongest when the community it serves provides input, if it increases public trust in local law enforcement and if it is generally the least expensive form of oversight due to reliance on volunteers.
If the review board has diverse community representation, police may have more motivation to conduct investigations without bias.
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In contrast, a weak review board is one that has limited authority and resources, volunteers with less expertise in police issues and less independence than other forms of police oversight.
An investigation-based board is the most independent form of oversight, according to the report. They usually contain highly specialized staff, and often increase public faith in the aftermath of police-involved public controversy.
However, investigative agencies are the most expensive type of board and usually garner resistance from police unions and their allies, which can lead to a police department being less forthcoming about misconduct and providing less transparency for the board to conduct investigations, the report states.
Protests and demonstrations across the nation have sparked controversial discussion about police misconduct and brutality in recent months, including right here in Albuquerque.
Two years ago, protesters near UNM clashed with the Albuquerque Police Department. APD released tear gas into the crowd, and ended up arresting protesters. Some of the protesters contested that APD has issues around excessive use of force.
The U.S. Department of Justice echoed that concern following an investigation of APD practices, as the police department was cited with excessive use of force and entered a settlement agreement with DOJ.
Nikole McKibben is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @nmckibben92.
