Reform to Police Accountability

2011 ◽  
pp. 299-363
Keyword(s):  
Police Accountability

Body Cameras, Big Data, and Police Accountability

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (04) ◽  
pp. 1236-1256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary D. Fan
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Retention Time ◽  
Data Retention ◽  
Police Accountability ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
Blind Spots

The increase in data from police-worn body cameras can illuminate formerly opaque practices. This article discusses using audiovisual big data from police-worn body cameras, citizen recordings, and other sources to address blind spots in police oversight. Based on body camera policies in America's largest cities, it discusses two possible roadblocks: (1) data retention and deletion, and (2) limits on use for evaluation and discipline. Although recordings are retained for criminal prosecutions, retention for oversight and accountability is overlooked or is contentious. Some departments have no policy on videos concerning civil suits against the police. The retention time for non-evidentiary recordings is also much shorter. Some policies limit their use for evaluation and discipline. Transactional myopia—seeing at the case rather than the systemic level—leads to a focus on specific footage for particular cases, rather than the potential of aggregated body camera big data to reveal important systemic information and to prevent the escalation of problems.

Digital policing technologies and democratic policing

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Temitayo Isaac Odeyemi ◽  
A. Sat Obiyan
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Application ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Police Misconduct ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Response Unit ◽  
Democratic Policing ◽  
Police Accountability ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

The police are expected to perform functions critical to relations between the government and citizens in democratic societies. However, in Nigeria, the reality is that the police organisation suffers limitations that undermine effective and democratic policing. Although the Nigeria Police Force has a long and chequered history, its services are dogged by challenges including adversarial police–citizen relations and mutual suspicion and police misconduct. To address these problems and enhance policing, the Nigeria Police Force has deployed digital technologies through a Complaint Response Unit [later renamed the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU)]. The PCRRU allows the public to connect with the police through dedicated phone numbers for calls and SMS, and a round-the-clock presence on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Blackberry Messenger and a mobile application. Although this initiative often draws attention and commendation, it also raises doubts about sustenance and utility value. Drawing on David Easton’s input–output nexus as a theoretical underpinning on the one hand, and data sourced through expert opinion interviews and web measurement on the other hand, this article investigates how these digital policing technologies, through the PCRRU, enhance efforts at mutually rewarding police–citizen relations and police accountability, as requisites of democratic policing, in Nigeria. The findings expand discussion on the dimensions of Nigeria’s police–citizen relations and the potentials of technology in promoting positive outcomes. The findings also suggest means through which police managers can optimise technology in ways that aid strategic efforts at improving public security.

Holding the Police to Account

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Ishmael Mugari
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Accountability Measures ◽  
Legal Control ◽  
Police Accountability ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Mere Presence ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Police Abuse

Whilst there are various mechanisms to curb incidents of police abuse of power, legal control provides one of the most effective ways of enhancing police accountability. Though enforcement of the legal instruments may be a challenge, the mere presence of the legal instruments may provide a fertile ground for other accountability measures. This chapter, which is largely based on literature and documentary survey, explores the legal instruments of accountability in the Republic of Zimbabwe. The chapter specifically focuses on the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. The chapter begins by giving an overview of the international and regional legal framework before discussing the national legal framework for police accountability.

scholarly journals Beyond crime rates and community surveys: a new approach to police accountability and performance measurement

Crime Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarah Hodgkinson ◽  
Tullio Caputo ◽  
Michael L. McIntyre
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Performance Assessment ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Police Performance ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Networked Governance ◽  
Police Organizations ◽  
Police Accountability ◽  
And Performance

Abstract In this conceptual piece, we argue that the current approach to police performance measurement typically based on the use of traditional police metrics has failed to achieve the desired results and that a different strategy is required. Traditional police metrics have a narrow focus on crime and the police response to it. They provide little information on how well police organizations are performing. Importantly, traditional police metrics do not incorporate input from police stakeholders in goal identification, nor do they use specifically designed indicators to assess progress towards achieving these goals. Following an analysis of the criticisms levelled at the use of traditional police metrics, and subsequent attempts to address these issues, we argue that a networked governance approach represents a more promising foundation for undertaking police organizational performance assessment. Such an approach would engage stakeholders more directly in goal identification and performance assessment, and potentially lead to more successful, responsive and accountable policing.

Police Accountability and the Media

1984 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome H. Skolnick ◽  
Candace McCoy
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
American Government ◽  
Police Accountability ◽  
Crime News ◽  
The Media ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
Political Duty

This article explores First Amendment theory and the role of the media in generating police accountability through public understanding of police organizations. We argue that free speech theory can and should look beyond “abridgment” issues and raise questions about the civic responsibility of the press to inform the public about key governmental institutions. The media's concern with crime news, we found, vastly overshadows its coverage of the police us a complex, in-teresting, and expensive governmental agency. Reporting about police institutional patterns and policies contributes more toward fulfilling First Amendment values-not only that of “checking” police excesses, but of facilitating the goal of enlightened citizen participation in local government.Those who won our independence believed…that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of American government. They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject.

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