Models of police oversight: A critique

This is a theoretical paper that addresses the question: What is the best form of control of police conduct? The paper cites the inadequacy of traditional mechanisms such as accountability to the law and elected officials; and focuses on the current debate, which divides primarily over the division of labour between internal affairs and a specialised external agency. Recourse to external agencies can be divided into two further models. ‘Civilian review’ involves independent auditing of internal investigations and disciplinary decisions. It is argued that police capacity for subversion of civilian review makes this a weak modeL In contrast, the ‘civilian control’ model entails genuinely independent investigation and adjudication. The civilian control model should reduce the risk of subversion when complaints processing is coupled with pre‐emptive forms of monitoring and investigation, including the use of hi‐technology covert surveillance. Although often criticised as weakening police responsibility for maintaining discipline, this model leaves large scope for police involvement in complaint mediation, and in integrity development through human resource management strategies