Managing Accountability Systems for Police Conduct

Book excerpt: Police officers are invested with awesome powers and may use physical force to take a citizen into custody. These powers help the police enforce laws and control suspects, but they also have the potential to be abused. The police must be responsive and accountable about crime and safety, but they must also be responsive and accountable to the law and the rights of citizens. Police abuse of power has a long and unfortunate history in the United States, often because of the failure to develop meaningful procedures to ensure police accountability. This book introduces the reader to a unit of the police department that has been secretive and lacking transparency, despite being an integral part of policing for a number of years. Noble and Alpert clearly explain the structure and function of internal affairs or professional compliance units and provide guidance for establishing an effective unit that will benefit both the police and the community. One recent trend is to make internal affairs more proactive than reactive. The authors provide comprehensive coverage of this trends objectives: implement procedures to identify and modify improper actions by police officers; change policies and procedures that negatively affect citizens quality of life; take appropriate action so that the misconduct of a few officers does not detract from the overall mission and reputation of the agency; and conduct fair, thorough, and accurate investigations to protect police employees against false accusations of misconduct.