Overview

There has been a considerable increase in the number of procedures involving citizen oversight of police implemented by cities and counties in the 1990s. However, many of these procedures have had a troubled history involving serious-even bitter-conflict among the involved parties. Citizen Review of Police: Approaches and Implementation is designed to help jurisdictions that may decide to establish-or wish to improve-an oversight system to avoid or eliminate these battles. At the same time, the publication can help oversight planners understand and choose among the many options available for structuring a citizen review procedure. Finally, current oversight staff and volunteers may find it useful to review the publication as a way of learning more about the field. To provide this assistance, Citizen Review of Police describes the operations of nine very different systems of citizen oversight. However, the publication does not promote any particular type of citizen review-or citizen review in general. Rather, the report is intended to help local government executives and legislators, as well as police and sheriff's department administrators, union leaders, and local citizen groups and public interest organizations, learn about the advantages, drawbacks, and limitations of a variety of oversight systems and components.