NCJ Number
206587
Journal
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Volume: 27 Issue: 2 Dated: 2004 Pages: 166-182
Date Published
2004
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Using data collected through surveys of police officers and citizens who had lodged complaints against the police in a metropolitan area in the Philippines, this study focused on "learning" as a viable construct for measuring the impact of civilian review boards and their perceived deterrent effects.
Abstract
The Philippines recently instituted a police control mechanism that is synonymous with civilian review. It is called the People's Law Enforcement Board (PLEB). The PLEB is a civilian board that receives, investigates, adjudicates, and decides cases that involve citizen complaints against members of the Philippine National Police, the national police force of the Philippines. The jurisdiction of each PLEB is local, and there is at least one PLEB for each municipality, although the larger cities have one PLEB for each legislative district. The National Capital Region of the Philippines was the site for the current study of police and complainant perceptions of the impact of the PLEB's. This region is composed of 11 cities and 6 municipalities, including Manila, the capital. Three samples were selected for the study. One sample consisted of complainants who instituted actions before a PLEB in the National Capital Region (n=515); the second consisted of police officers who had complaints filed against them before a PLEB from 1991 to 2000 (n=206); and the third sample was composed of police officers who had never been a party to a complaint filed before a PLEB (n=514). Overall, the findings of the surveys indicated that PLEB's were perceived as having an effect on officer behavior through the "learning" that the police derived from the operations of the PLEB's. The PLEB's were perceived by police to exert a considerable degree of influence over departmental policies and officer behavior. Complainants, however, had a more conservative evaluation of the impact of the PLEB's. Complainants were less likely than both groups of police officers to report positive changes in police policies and attitudes across all of the measures. This may be because complainants had less knowledge about the dynamics and content of police policies. Since the powers of police civilian review boards vary from country to country and jurisdiction to jurisdiction, it is important to determine which boards among the variety represented have the most impact on police department policies and police officers' behavioral and attitudinal learning. 3 tables, 7 notes, and 40 references