NCJ Number
193776
Date Published
2001
Length
17 pages
Annotation
After discussing the importance of the characteristics of police and policing in determining citizens' perceptions of justice in a specific society, this article discusses mechanisms of controlling policing in the United States in the interest of ensuring that police conform to mandated concepts of justice.
Abstract
The author first provides examples of societies that are attempting to address the significant problem of unjust and corrupt police, i.e., Brazil, China, and post-Soviet Russia. Efforts to gain police compliance with concepts of justice in the United States include internal controls, which are methods that a police agency uses to control officer behavior. Most internal controls are embodied in policies and procedures developed by the police department, enforced by police supervisors, and followed by each police officer. This article addresses some of the most common internal controls of police, including supervision, an internal affairs unit that investigates police misconduct, and means of developing peer influence. To supplement internal controls on police conduct, several governmental entities outside police departments exercise external control. External controls act as incentives for police to perform their duties in a just manner and impose penalties for failing to do so. External measures include criminal prosecution, tort claims, civil rights lawsuits, Federal intervention to counter practices of police injustice, and the application to police of rules of criminal procedure. The author advises that internal and external mechanisms of control over police behavior cannot ultimately prevent all police misconduct; the key to a significant reduction in police injustice lies in the development of the character of individual police officers. 28 references and 49 notes