Models of Civilian Oversight in Canada: Advice for Other Jurisdictions
Brent Cotter
Canada has been a leader in the development of models of civilian oversight of the police. These legislatively established models establish civilian oversight of essentially all of Canada’s police services. While regimes associated with individual police services or individual cities continue to exist, the predominant model is jurisdiction-wide, predominantly throughout a province [or state] but in one case predominantly nation-wide. The three most common models in Canada are:
- independent agencies mandated to oversee or review police service investigations of alleged police misconduct;
- independent agencies authorized to undertake investigations of alleged police misconduct; and
- agencies authorized to conduct criminal investigations of ‘serious incidents’, with the potential of findings of serious police misconduct, often leading to criminal charges.
These oversight models have evolved over the past 25 years, influenced by developments in other jurisdictions or by dramatic events in a particular jurisdiction that have led to calls for the creation or enrichment of civilian oversight regimes. As well, work has been undertaken is some cases to develop approaches that both strengthen and synthesize oversight.
Recent academic work undertaken at the University of Saskatchewan in Western Canada has sought to develop a strengthened, rationalized and synthesized model for that Canadian province.
You’re Going to be Criticized No Matter What You Do: Perspectives of Civilian Oversight Directors in the United States
Richard Rosenthal
Over the last two decades, a new profession of “Citizen Oversight of Law Enforcement” has emerged as a permanent fixture within municipal policing in the United States. As professional overseers have worked to identify best practices in civilian oversight, they have been challenged on all sides, sometimes being accused of being “pro-police” and other times being accused of being “anti-police.” As such, the profession has been fraught with conflict and has been forced to operate somewhere between the demands and expectations of the communities they serve and the police officers who they oversee. This article uses qualitative interviews of several highly successful U.S. oversight directors to identify the challenges and impediments to successful and sustainable oversight programs. This paper has identified certain themes and patterns in the opinions of these oversight practitioners to include the tools and circumstances necessary to ensure the success of a civilian oversight of law enforcement agency. Amongst the conditions necessary for success are independence of the agency from the government, job security for the agency director, the need for professional qualified staff, unfettered access to information, transparency through the ability to publicly report on its work, objective and professional work product, and a willingness of the agency director to work collaboratively and cooperatively even when suffering from personal and professional attacks from unhappy stakeholders.