Environmental determinism and the existence of citizen oversight of the police

Developments in citizen oversight of the police have not gone unnoticed by policing scholars. Though the concept has been controversial and heavily debated, noticeable increases in these mechanisms are evident on both national and international levels, especially in the most populated metropolitan areas in the United States. There is, however, a research gap in that available scholarly inquiries have not empirically examined the existence of citizen oversight within an explanatory framework, cognizant of plausible theoretical assumptions. This research examines the existence of citizen oversight of the police in the 100 largest cities/agencies. The analysis supports the contention that the presence of collective bargaining, higher crime rates, and higher police-citizen ratios are statistically related to mere existence. The rate of citizen complaints (a factor alluded to in past research) fails to reach the pre-requisite level of significance. Findings are discussed within the context of environmental determinism, and implications for future study are outlined