Advantages And Disadvantages Of Citizen Oversight

Police misconduct has plagued many countries for many years. There are times when police officers violate or dismiss their job duties and some who blatantly break the law. Finding a solution to these issues has never been easy for police departments. Citizens have been vocal about their concerns and needed solutions to police conduct, so the creation of citizen oversight models have been used to help in resolving citizen complaints. Citizen oversight is defined by Walker (2000) as “a procedure for providing input into the complaint process by individuals who are not sworn police officers (p.5)”. To begin, the need to form citizen oversight agencies has grown significantly due to increased police corruption. Over the past few years, the public
Citizen oversight agencies can be a hindrance to police departments and policies. With the citizen agencies being run by citizens and non police officials, they do not have insight into police policies or issues that police officers encounter. Personal opinions can and probably do enter into this arena and can lead to final decisions being made that are too extreme. In 1989, New York City Police officers were part of a focus group that was used to evaluate the citizen oversight agency (Svifidoff & McElroy, 1989). Officers Sviridoff and McElroy concluded that officers felt that the agency was unable to weed out insignificant and minor complaints. In doing so, the agency ruled more in favor of or on the side of the citizen than the officer. Such bias actions by the agency cause some officers to sometimes falsify their reports in order to have a more level playing field during the investigation process. Svifidoff and McElroy’s (1989) report has suggested that with police fear of unfair reprimand that more officers will perjure themselves and their
With opinions and personal views being a major factor, one police officer could get a reprimand based on the views and opinions of another issue concerning a different officer. There is also the possibility of a personal vendetta or revenge on an officer being carried out through an oversight agency. The use or increased use of citizen oversight agencies can hinder further investigation into a citizen complaint by the police department. If that occurs, then other important information could be overlooked causing an incorrect resolution.
Research, studies and surveys have been conducted since the first citizen oversight agency was created. The reports have shown agreement and disagreement with the agencies by police officers but the results have not been substantial enough to warrant an end to the agencies altogether. As with anything else, the continual work of the agencies over time will show if they are helping to reduce citizen complaints, restore confidence in the police and restore faith in police