What has been learned about civilian oversight of law enforcement

After the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement received a flood of calls from jurisdictions nationwide looking for information about establishing or revitalizing their own boards and commissions. While the volume of inquiries has slowed in the years since, interest remains acute.

“We often hear from people within governments who want to make law enforcement better and to make community-police relations better,” says Cameron McEllhiney, the association’s executive director.  She notes that there has been a particular interest recently in efforts to establish oversight of sheriff’s offices, especially in California.

When they work well, civilian oversight bodies play a significant role in helping to diminish tragic events, alleviate police-community tensions and potentially save city money that is lost through police-related legal settlements. “One of the things that a lot of government officials and police departments should understand is that civilian oversight of law enforcement can really help from a risk management standpoint,” says Kim Neal, independent policing auditor in Alexandria, Virginia.

But as political tensions and the partisan divide has grown, the civilian oversight field itself has changed and has begun to include more independent police auditors and monitors whose focus tends to be on processes and patterns in police departments, rather than on investigating citizen complaints. That approach can result in more concrete recommendations for improvements in police procedures or training.

This is just one of the learnings from the last four years of civilian oversight boards, which Route Fifty last wrote about in July 2020.

“No two are the same”

One comment that is often repeated by participants and observers of the field is that every organization is different from the next.

Results differ based on the attitude of police chiefs, state laws, the reasons why oversight was started, organizational structure, and political, social, economic. and demographic factors. Additionally, the details of the ordinance through which oversight boards were created affect board membership, the kinds of inquiries allowed and the extent of the oversight body’s access to police information.

Neal became the independent police auditor in Alexandria when the office opened in January 2023. But previously she had served for about five years with the Civilian Complaint Authority in Cincinnati, and more recently for two years as the independent police monitor in Fort Worth, Texas. Typically, the structure of each place and its history was a bit different.

Oversight organizations often are set up in reaction to public outcry about police-involved shootings, as was the case in Fort Worth. But Neal says she was intrigued with the development of the Alexandria office because it wasn’t established in reaction to a local incident. Instead, the Alexandria board was based on a resolution by mayor and city council following Floyd’s death.

Oversight Challenges

Although many observers point to the way that civilian oversight has improved police processes and police-community relations, there’s been a backlash to this trend. States like Arizona, Tennessee and Utah now restrict local governments in various ways that limit the scope of how civilian oversight operates. To date, the most extreme legislation, passed in Florida, and effective as of July 1, ended the existence of over 20 long-standing Florida oversight organizations, including ones in Miami-Dade County, North Miami and the city of Miami.

On the day he signed the Florida legislation, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a governor’s office press release that the new act would allow law enforcement to work without “threat of harassment,” making Florida “the friendliest state in the nation toward our law enforcement community.” 

Even without laws that block civilian oversight, there are many potential obstacles that stand in the way of effective practices. Oversight bodies that are very dependent on volunteers, for instance, face a struggle with turnover as even committed individuals with busy schedules need to break away from prior commitments.

Another significant challenge is access to information, which can be limited when relationships between the oversight body and law enforcement are strained. “There are several civilian oversight [bodies] throughout the country right now that are stuck struggling greatly with getting access to the information they need to actually carry out the mandate,” says McEllhiney. “In order to do the work, there has to be a level of cooperation.”

Richard Schott, the independent police auditor in Fairfax County, Virginia, notes that building the relationship takes time. When he started the job in early 2018, he was the first person in that position, which operates separately from the simultaneously created Fairfax Civilian Review Panel.

“There was a learning curve. The department didn’t know who I was, where I was coming from and what my motivation might be when I took the job,” he says.  Over time, mutual trust has been built up. “The police department and more important, the rank-and-file officers have come to appreciate that I’m not out to get anybody. I think, more than before, the police department views me as a potential resource, as opposed to somebody looking over their shoulder.”

That said, Schott knows that his role is one that can leave everyone—police and community—potentially unhappy with his observations and recommendations. “There’s this middle ground in the role that you play, with the potential for everybody being dissatisfied with what you’re doing,” he says.

Staff and funding issues can also hobble oversight organizations, particularly when budgets are tight. A recent newspaper article in Madison, Wisconsin, reported potential budget cuts and possible elimination of oversight that had been created in 2020. At the time, the new independent police monitor and Police Civilian Oversight Board had been hailed as a “milestone” for the city by the mayor. But based on “lower than expected activity” and a $22 million city shortfall for the coming year, the mayor was targeting them for budget cuts.

The Critical Need for Training

Activists, who become part of a civilian board, may also feel the strain of working with law enforcement offices rather than in clear opposition to them. An important role for the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement comes in training new oversight entities about the importance of developing working relationships at the same time that they’re monitoring and potentially investigating police performance or responding to community complaints.

Since she first became the youngest member of a civilian oversight board in Indianapolis in the 1990s, McEllhiney says that she “was lucky to understand early on the necessity of training so that people know how to do the work.” This includes training from police on their practices because oversight boards need this kind of information to do their jobs effectively.

Additionally, says Schott. “I think you need to educate the community about what it is your oversight entity does and what it can’t do.”

In McEllhiney’s view, the next step in the evolution of civilian oversight bodies is that their existence should be a permanent part of public safety, along with operation standards that recognize the many differences in statutes, size, collective bargaining, political will and budgeting practice around the U.S..

“We’ve got civilian oversight entities and 250 that look a little different from every other one, and that’s problematic,” McEllhiney said. “Some are enjoying effective civilian oversight, great cooperation and good results.”

And the others?

“They may not have all the tools they need or the cooperation that’s necessary to do the work,” she said. “We need to continually do a better job of educating law enforcement on the benefit of civilian oversight to every stakeholder.”