Perspectives of directors of civilian oversight of law enforcement agencies

The purpose of this paper is to involve interviews with civilian oversight of law enforcement (COLE) directors from throughout the USA with the purpose of obtaining their perspectives on what it takes to create and sustain successful COLE programs.

The project involved 24 semi-structured interviews with experienced COLE directors. The interviews were transcribed and coded and this paper presents these perspectives according to patterns identified during analysis.

The research identified themes and patterns in the attitudes of the oversight directors which included numerous conditions necessary for success of an oversight agency. Amongst the most important conditions included agency independence, director job security, the need for professional qualified staff, unfettered access to information, the ability to publicly report on the agency’s work and a willingness on the part of government officials to tolerate criticism of the police.

This is the first study to identify the challenges and impediments to sustainable COLE mechanisms from the point-of-view of experienced agency directors. The findings can be used by future practitioners to learn from past experiences.