This book examines coverage of current police controversies; discusses important new mechanisms of accountability, such as comprehensive use of force reporting, citizen complaint procedures, early intervention systems, and police auditors; provides extensive coverage of racial profiling; includes a helpful list of Web sites for further research on the topics covered in the book. It is designed as a supplementary textbook for undergraduate and graduate policing courses in the departments of criminal justice and criminology. The book will also be of interest to scholars, police officials, citizen oversight officials, and community activists.

Police oversight agencies are citizens' watchdog organizations designed to ensure that the police are operating with integrity and accountability. Integrity is defined as the quality of being honest and morally upright. Accountability refers to situations in which someone is required or expected to justify actions or decisions. Based on integrity and accountability challenges in police forces all over the world, this book discusses the roles and methods of police oversight agencies. Knowledge management in police oversight is presented by identifying knowledge categories and knowledge management systems. A model for police oversight performance is developed in the book, and the model is applied to an oversight agency as a case study.

Exploring the complex and controversial topic of civilian oversight of police, this book analyzes the issues and debates entailed by civilian oversight by using worldwide perspectives, in-depth case studies, and a wealth of survey data. It integrates and summarizes decades of research from many locations around the globe to present a best practices model for managing police conduct. It also describes the impact of oversight agencies on police policy, including innovative means by which agencies can work with police departments to improve police conduct.

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.

"This book gives a brief yet thorough summary of the main components of police accountability in the 21st century. What works, what doesn’t, and where are we going in the future? I love to use it with my undergraduate students to help them understand the complexities of policing in the modern era." —Janne E. Gaub, East Carolina University Completely revised to cover recent events and research, the Third Edition of The New World of Police Accountability provides an original and comprehensive analysis of some of the most important developments in police accountability and reform strategies. With a keen and incisive perspective, esteemed authors and policing researchers, Samuel Walker and Carol Archbold, address the most recent developments and provide an analysis of what works, what reforms are promising, and what has proven unsuccessful. The book’s analysis draws on current research, as well as the President′s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and the reforms embodied in Justice Department consent decrees. New to the Third Edition: The national crisis over police legitimacy and use of force, is put into context through extensive discussions of recent police shootings and the response to this national crisis, providing readers a valuable perspective on the positive steps that have been taken and the limits of those steps. Coverage of the issues related to police officer uses of force is now the prevailing topic in Chapter 3 and includes detailed discussion of the topic, including de-escalation, tactical decision making, and the important changes in training related to these issues. An updated examination of the impact of technology on policing, including citizens’ use of recording devices, body-worn cameras, open data provided by police agencies, and use of social media, explores how technology contributes to police accountability in the United States. A complete, up-to-date discussion of citizen oversight of the police provides details on the work of selected oversight agencies, including the positive developments and their limitations, enabling readers to have an informed discussion of the subject. Detailed coverage of routine police activities that often generate public controversy now includes such topics as responding to mental health calls, domestic violence calls, and police "stop and frisk" practices. Issues related to policing and race relations are addressed head-on through a careful examination of the data, as well as the impact of recent reforms that have attempted to achieve professional, bias-free policing.

This book provides a single text of different perspectives on how professional standards and ethics has been conceptualised and developed into practical policing processes for the purposes of policing, not only by the police but also by the partner agencies.