Social Accountability and Institutional Change: The Case of Citizen Oversight of Police

The Effect of Civilian Oversight on Police Organizational Performance: A Quasi-Experimental Study

“…Furthermore, although the current study exclusively focuses on whether police agencies have civilian oversight due to the limitation of the data utilized in the analysis, civilian oversight agencies play multiple roles in practice, and the scope of civilian oversight varies across the agencies (Ali & Nicholson-Crotty, 2021; Ali & Pirog, 2019; De Angelis et al, 2016; Walker, 2001). For instance, modern civilian oversight agencies in the United States are known to perform as investigative agencies, auditing or monitoring agencies, review boards, or commissions (Attard & Olson, 2013).…”

“…Admittedly, there has been comparably little systematic research on the effectiveness of civilian oversight in improving police performance to be more desirable to citizens (De Angelis et al, 2016). Except for the recent research investigating the relationship between accountability and police performance (e.g., Ali & Nicholson-Crotty, 2021; Ali & Pirog, 2019), the existing research tends to provide sporadic evidence not sufficiently supporting the arguments of either proponents or opponents of civilian oversight. The previous literature (e.g., De Angelis, 2009; Kerstetter & Rasinski, 1994; Wells & Schafer, 2007; Worrall, 2002) has shown how civilian oversight influences the perception of individual citizens or police officers either positively or negatively.…”

“…Nevertheless, they have not explicitly investigated how their findings are related to the broad range of other critical aspects of police organizational performance. More recent studies have come to focus on “public and police officer safety” (Ali & Nicholson-Crotty, 2021) and “racial disparity” (Ali & Pirog, 2019) in police misconduct. Still, there remains a gap to fill in our understanding of civilian oversight as an accountability mechanism and how it functions to induce changes in police agencies.…”

Police Killings: Road Map of Research Priorities for Change

“…Various models of civilian oversight are increasingly used to monitor and review police departments. In addition to internal review mechanisms, law enforcement agencies are also increasingly subject to various forms of civilian oversight (Ali and Pirog, 2019;Stageman, Napolitano, and Buchner, 2018). Per the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, more than 200 civilian oversight institutions exist at the local level, even though that still covers only a fraction of all of the law enforcement agencies in the United States (Decker and Shjarback, 2020).…”

Get Your Shades Now—The Future's Still Bright: Leveraging Human Resources for Tomorrow's Public Service

“…In their investigation of citizen oversight agencies (COAs) for law enforcement, Ali and Pirog () argue for sustained financial and human resource commitment from local governments to support these citizen‐oriented institutions. Given the many positives that accrue, such commitment can be considered an investment in equity.…”