Police Accountability - towards international standards (POLARCS)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Dundee
Department Name: Humanities
Abstract
Against the backdrop of increased powers and resources granted to police agencies for combating terrorism and other newly perceived threats in many mature democracies, the POLACS project compares levels of empowerment for citizens through accountability mechanisms (independent external oversight bodies, police complaints procedures and similar schemes). Additional police powers, technologies and transnational police networks add to the already far-reaching powers that police agencies have, granting the police new and powerful ways of monitoring and interfering in citizens' lives and thus their fundamental rights. Yet, it has often proven to be very difficult to get the reform of police complaints procedures onto the political agenda. Today, with audio-video recording equipment becoming ubiquitous and with encounters between police and members of the public disseminated instantly via the internet, the issue has moved from the fringes to the mainstream as a live political issue.
Researchers from Canada, France, Germany, the UK and Japan will be cooperating in the POLACS project. The research also covers other countries with well-established police oversight bodies, e.g. Australia, the US and the Netherlands. In the light of persistent public concerns in many democratic countries about effective police accountability, particularly in cases of death or serious injury to members of the public, there is an urgent need to improve the empirical basis for comparison of external independent police accountability schemes and to develop international standards for 'good practice'. The project also includes the accountability of transnational policing within institutional frameworks, such as Interpol or the European Union's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, as well as in transnational police networks. For transnational policing, mostly situated outside national parliamentary oversight and access to justice, accountability can be perceived as particularly deficient.
The academic investigators involved in the POLACS project, with their theoretical and empirical expertise on police accountability, will revise and adapt current accountability theories and standards to the empirical reality that has been rapidly developing since the 1990s. A comparative methodological approach is adopted as the most effective way to contextualise performance of national and sub-national schemes and a necessary basis for developing international standards for 'good practice'. Currently policy-makers, practitioners and activists involved in reforming external police accountability mechanisms face great difficulties in contextualising current schemes with other schemes, past and present, as the available qualitative insights and quantitative data are often not comparable. Only by bringing existing data and knowledge together will it be possible to contextualise national and sub-national police accountability schemes and identify what data and insights are missing. This will inform the empirical research undertaken by both this project and subsequent research.
Researchers from Canada, France, Germany, the UK and Japan will be cooperating in the POLACS project. The research also covers other countries with well-established police oversight bodies, e.g. Australia, the US and the Netherlands. In the light of persistent public concerns in many democratic countries about effective police accountability, particularly in cases of death or serious injury to members of the public, there is an urgent need to improve the empirical basis for comparison of external independent police accountability schemes and to develop international standards for 'good practice'. The project also includes the accountability of transnational policing within institutional frameworks, such as Interpol or the European Union's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, as well as in transnational police networks. For transnational policing, mostly situated outside national parliamentary oversight and access to justice, accountability can be perceived as particularly deficient.
The academic investigators involved in the POLACS project, with their theoretical and empirical expertise on police accountability, will revise and adapt current accountability theories and standards to the empirical reality that has been rapidly developing since the 1990s. A comparative methodological approach is adopted as the most effective way to contextualise performance of national and sub-national schemes and a necessary basis for developing international standards for 'good practice'. Currently policy-makers, practitioners and activists involved in reforming external police accountability mechanisms face great difficulties in contextualising current schemes with other schemes, past and present, as the available qualitative insights and quantitative data are often not comparable. Only by bringing existing data and knowledge together will it be possible to contextualise national and sub-national police accountability schemes and identify what data and insights are missing. This will inform the empirical research undertaken by both this project and subsequent research.
Organisations
| Description | The most significant findings cluster around four areas: 1. Significant new knowledge was generated by bringing together comparable quantitative data and qualitative information into online datasets to facilitate comparison and contextualisation between Independent Police Complaints Bodies (IPCBs). The UK team has produced two online datasets from the five countries in a format accessible to stakeholders and the general public. The aim is to provide IPCB practitioners, police, and members of the public with core information allowing them to see how their current IPCB arrangements compare and contrast with other schemes. The first presents each IPCB with detailed description of its institutional arrangements and key performance data: http://www.police-accountability-project.com/content/resources/complaints/englandwales/ The second provides an overview of data on procedures, powers, resources, other key comparative data to facilitate comparison: http://www.police-accountability-project.com/content/resources/data-query/ . 2. New analytical frameworks have been developed from thematic comparative analysis of IPCBs (including, e.g. structures, powers, resources). This novel approach has enabled a nuanced understanding of how core challenges, such as public awareness, relate to these themes. It has also revealed previously hidden interactions, e.g. between nominal stakeholder support for extensive remits and powers, which in fact aim to limit the effectiveness of the IPCB. This detailed knowledge is essential for discussions about how these challenges may be overcome and how international standards on police accountability might be achieved - or at least approached. 3. A third objective of this research has been a deeper understanding of the dynamics around stakeholders, their some-times conflicting interests, and how these affect reform processes differently depending on the bureaucratic traditions of each country. The comparative approach helps to identify problem areas where institutional arrangements and procedures potentially adversely affect fair and equitable reception, triage, investigation, and adjudication of complaints. This has been particularly fruitful when bringing together stakeholders from different countries and jurisdictions. The networking and knowledge-exchange between stakeholders (IPCB practitioners, police, and representatives for complainants' interests) has been essential not only for exploring the problems, but for opening dialogs about how to address these. The exchange of experience and mutual inspiration, the identification of common challenges and the fact that discussions were general rather than linked to any specific IPCBs, helped some stakeholders to move from defensiveness towards constructive engagement. 4. Finally, another objective was to explore the limits of current complaints structures, identifying absences and inconsistencies in the current coverage. The significance of this endeavour was to confirm expected negative results and also to determine whether there was awareness of problems in accessing complaints systems and whether there were any attempts to address these gaps in the complaints coverage. Interviews with IPCB and NGO practitioners involved with transnational law-enforcement revealed significant shortcomings and unawareness of practices from other IPCBs. Further research is also needed in relation to private security, which is largely ungoverned by public sector IPCBs despite its increasing prevalence (e.g. in migration, large public events). The comparative analysis developed in this project provides a starting point for further research in these important areas. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings of this project and the development of frameworks for comparison between schemes, particularly quantitative data on resourcing and performance, has major implications in two fields. In terms of advancing the academic field on police complaints handling, the importance of this project lies in its development of analytical frameworks for comparison and contextualisation of other complaints schemes in relation to the complaints schemes under investigation by this project. The second major outcome is how the comparative contextualisation will allow police reformers and politicians to assess the advantages and disadvantages of different legal-institutional arrangements, as well as having quantitative data for adequate resourcing of a functioning system. This project provides a novel analytical framework based on our thematic, comparative analysis which can be used by other researchers, IPCBs and other stakeholders in the field to assess IPCBs in their own jurisdiction, identifying strengths and challenges. The framework helps to clarify the interactions of institutional structures and powers, historical contexts and interactions between the IPCB and stakeholders such as the police and police unions. This can assist in the identification of advantages and disadvantages of different legal-institutional arrangements and potential solutions to challenges. In addition, the project provides quantitative data for adequate resourcing of a functioning system. |
| Sectors | Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Over the three-year project period, there has been continuous engagement with complaints practitioners, police, political policy-makers, and rights NGOs which has facilitate the exchange of knowledge from the team to stakeholders. There have been regular events, including in 2023 and 2024 in the UK, which brought together stakeholders from across the project countries and others (e.g. Ireland) to discuss project findings. These have provided an opportunity for the stakeholders to reflect on the application of the findings to their jurisdictions and opened a comparative discussion on elements of best practice that could address national challenges, as well as fostering important networks between the stakeholders themselves. The project findings have informed the development of a new Federal IPCB in Germany, with the German team drawing on the comparative analysis to identify the institutional structures and powers needed to ensure an effective complaints process, in written and oral evidence to the legislative process, with the legislation approved in late 2023. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Appointed Independent Member of Advisory Group on Biometric Data |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Impact | The main purpose of the Advisory Group at this stage has been to provide input on the Code of Practice. |
| URL | https://www.biometricscommissioner.scot |
| Description | Invited as independent expert to provide Independent Report to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution's Inquiry on 'Police Power and the Right to Peaceful Protest |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | The APPGDC published the report was published on the 1st July 2021. Discussions on the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill are ongoing in Parliament. |
| URL | https://www.icdr.co.uk/bristol-clapham-inquiry |
| Description | Member of the Oversight, Scrutiny, and Review Working Group of the Independent Advisory Group on New and Emerging Tech (in Policing) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Impact | The IAG has not yet reported and so its impacts are currently unknown. |
| URL | https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-advisory-group-on-emerging-technologies-in-policing-wo... |
| Description | Amy Long [Humphrey] (University of Dundee) presenting a paper entitled 'Understanding and Responding to Barriers Faced by Complainants against the Police' to the European Society of Criminology Conference in Florence 7 Sept.2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The annual conference for the European Society for Criminology attracts scholars from across the world and a range of disciplines working on crime, criminal justice, and law enforcement. Along with the opportunity for presenting the project findings, these conferences constitute allow for networking and information about ongoing research on related topics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://esc-eurocrim.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Programme-no-abstracts.pdf |
| Description | Anj Johansen (University of Dundee) in public debate about how research on police accountability and complaints handling in the present benefits from long-term historical perspectives. Venue the Hygienemuseum in Dresden, Germany, 10 May 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a public discussion based on the project 'Police Accountability: Towards International Standards', making the case for more engagement of historians in contemporary political issues and the need for social science research on current developments on policing and accountabiity can benefit from including long-term historical perspectives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmTLQIVRIvs |
| Description | Anja Johansen (Univeristy of Dundee) participating in an online stakeholder event organised by the German partners 2 Nov. 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This event brought together for the first time practitioners from the six independent police complaints bodies established in Germany over the past decade. As one of the key objectives of the project has been to facilitate knowledge-exchange and conversations between different stakeholders, both at the national and international level, it was particularly important to get practitioners from the German schemes, which are organised at the level of Länder, together in the hope that some wider networks and more formalised connections will emerge. Anja Johansen was one of two non-German participants to provide non-German perspectives on the options and possible future developments of German police complaints structures. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Anja Johansen (University of Dundee) presenting a paper entitled 'Citizens to be protected and individuals to be repressed' at the European Society of Criminology Conference in Florence 7 Sept. 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The annual conferences of the European Society of Criminology brings together scholars from across the world working on crime, criminal justice, and law enforcement from a range of disciplines. The opportunity was made to reengage with projects and scholars working on closely related topics and plan for future exchange and collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://esc-eurocrim.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Programme-no-abstracts.pdf |
| Description | Anja Johansen (University of Dundee) presenting a paper entitled 'Police Accountability: linking the past with the present and the future' to the 32. Colloquium on German Police Studies, 8 July 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Annual Colloquium on German Police Studies presents an opportunity to engage a wider audience of academics, police practitioners, politicians and the wider public with a broad interest in research on policing, and discuss with them accountability and police complaint handling. This is also an opportunity to network with scholars and police practitioners for further research engagement on police accountability. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://polizeigeschichte-kolloquium.eu/Archiv/2023_Hamburg_KolPol_Programm.pdf |
| Description | Anja Johansen (University of Dundee) presenting a paper entitled 'Police Complaint Procedures and the Elusive Complainant' to the Congress for the German-Language Association of Sociology and Law in Innsbruck, 23 Sept. 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The German Congress for Sociology of Law (Kongress der deutschsprachigen Rechtssoziologie-Vereinigungen) offered a unique opportunity for Anja Johansen to present the project and its findings to one of the largest gatherings of legal practitioners from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The paper was focused on the procedural and cultural mechanisms within complaints systems that constitute barriers for complainants, particuarly people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and generated much debate about similarities in experiences between individuals seeking to complaint within one of the three UK jurisdictions and the obstructions faced by complainants within the recent independent police complaints bodies in Germany. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.recht-und-gesellschaft.info/innsbruck2023/2023-09-23.html#talk:219296 |
| Description | Anja Johansen (University of Dundee) talk at the 31st Polizeikolloquium in Vienna, 30 June-2 July 2022, to an audience of academics and police practitioners about the study of police accountability and complaints handling in the long-term historical perspective |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Polizeikolloquium is an annual event bringing together academics and police for presentations and discussions on policing. It is particularly focused on how the past informs the present. Although organised by German academic institutions, it involves broad international participation of academics and practitioners, and constitutes an important forum for exchange of ideas between academics, practitioners and the general public. Anja Johansen's presentation, entitled 'Constructing police control and accountability mechanisms in London and Paris, 1829-1880s, and its influence on complaints structures in the 21st century', focused on dissimilarities between British and French conceptions of the relationship between police and public, and how the different 'policing ideologies', although rooted in the 19th century, still shape public debates about police accountabiilty and political approaches to reform of police complaints procedures in the UK and France of the 21st century. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://polizeigeschichte-kolloquium.eu/Archiv/2022.html |
| Description | Dr. Anja Johansen (University of Dundee) Presentation and Panel Organiser for The European Society of Criminology Conference 8 OCt. 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anja Johansen presented paper 'Police Complaints Beyond External Participation', presented to the European Society of Criminology Conference 8-10 Sept.2021. I was co-organiser for this panel with presenters from the POLACS project 'Police Accountability: Towards International Standards' (panel 39, paper 3). Due to Covid this was an online conference. In the room there were ca. 30 academics from different social science disciplines from across the world. Despite the inauspicious conditions the paper generated interest with requests for more information about the project and its findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://esc-eurocrim.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/55ZA1FAVSGCwSyhs8Shx_Programme-Eurocrim2021_f... |
| Description | Dr. Genevieve Lennon (University of Strathclyde) was invited to present a paper at the Scottish International Policing Conference, 29 Nov. 2023. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Genevieve Lennon' paper, entitled 'Public Confidence as an Objective of Independent Police Complaints Bodies', was presented to an audience of academics, civil servants, and police representatives from many levels of police organisations from across the UK. The Scottish Institution for Police Research (SIPR) is the main forum for informal and informed discussions between police and practitioners from a range of areas (criminal justice, prisons, police academy) as well as civil servants responsible for aspects of governance affiliated with policing issue or professional misconduct. SIPR is therefore a particularly significant forum for presentation and discussion of the project findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.sipr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SIPC-Programme.pdf |
| Description | Dr. Genevieve Lennon (University of Strathclyde) with Prof. Hartmut Aden (Berlin HWR) presenting the project 'Police Accountability: Towards International Standards' at the Annual Research Forum 29 June 2023 at the Berlin School for Economics and Law. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a presentation to a large audience of mainly German academics from different disciplines. This allowed for the project and the findings on the UK to be shared with a broad academic audience well outside the field of social sciences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.hwr-berlin.de/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung-detail/600-forschungsforum-2023-de... |
| Description | Formal meeting with German, French, Canadian, and Japanese research partrners in Kyoto, Japan, 27 Feb. to 8 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The project groups meeting in Kyoto involved both discussions and coordination of project findings as well as theoretical and methodological developments of the project, but also three engagement events: with senior police practitioners at the Kyoto Songyo University, a visit to a local Koban police station, and a visit to the Japanese police academy. The encounters allowed discussions about police accountability and citizens' complaints with police practitioners from the managerial level to rank and file police officers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://www.police-accountability-project.com/content/events/project-meetings/ |
| Description | In connection with a week of meetings in Paris with partner teams, an event was organised for 29 Feb. 2024 with representatives from the French police ombudsman's office, the Défenseur des droits. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This meeting involved three practitioners from the French Ombudsman's Office to discuss the position of the French Ombudsman (le Défenseur des droits - DDD) and her office's responsibilities for handling complaints against more than 200,000 police personnel from across France. Throughout this project, the French DDD has been particularly keen to engage and is also the driving force behind the international network of police complaints authorities (IPCAN). It was therefore important to discuss the how the project findings can contribute to the further development of independent police complaints bodies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | In connection with meeting of project teams at the University of Laval, Quebec, a stakeholder meeting was organised 2 Sept. 2023 with complaint practitioners, police representatives and civil servants. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This stakeholder meeting at the University Laval in Quebec brought together complaint practitioners, police representatives, civil servants, and politicians for brief presentations, discussions with stakeholders and opportunity for networking. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | International stakeholder meeting in Glasgow, 29 Jan. 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This stakeholder meeting, organised by the UK team, aimed at bringing together academics and practioners involved in complaints handling as well as representatives from different levels of police organisations across the UK, with participation of stakeholders and academics from France, Germany, and the Republic of Ireland. The main theme was how to improve public awareness of the complaints system and reach out to potential complainants from vulnerable groups. The additional aim was to facilitate networking and exchange of knowledge between complaints practitioners at national and international levels. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Meeting in Berlin with research partners from Germany, France, Canada, and Japan, 28 Feb.-5 March 2022 to discuss research findings, theoretical and methodological framework of the collaborative project and coordinate academic and outreach activities. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This week-long meetings at the School for Economic and Legal Studies in Berlin involved discussions about the theoretical and methodological framing of our empirical findings and coordinating of future research. It also involved preparation of an online seminar series aimed at a broader filed of academics working on policing as well as practitioners from police, criminal justice and complaint bodies, reaching beyond the five countries involved in this project (The UK, Germany, France, Canada, and Japan). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Online stakeholder event 'The Complainant's Experience' 20 July 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This stakeholder event was organised by the UK team and aimed primarily at engaging practitioners and police from the UK for discussion about the objectives of independent police complaints procedures. An important aspect of the event was the participation of complaints practitioners from Germany, France, Denmark and Ireland, invited to allow for broader discussions about the aims and objectives of complaints procedures, generating challenging conversations in plenum sessions and small-group discussions. A report was produced gathering the most important (anonymised) statements and contributions emerging from these discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at the European Society of Criminology Conference in Malaga 22 Sept. 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Anja Johansen (University of Dundee), Dr. Sonja John (Berlin School for Economics and Law) and Ms. Morgane Hérault (CESDIP, Université de Versailles - St. Quentin) co-presenting a paper entitled 'Comparing Objectives of Independent Police Complaints Bodies - The cases of France, Germany and the UK' to the Annual European Society of Criminology Criminology. This offered an opportunity for presentating project findings on conflicting objectives relating to Independent Police Complaints Bodies discussing the dissimilar implications for such inconsistencies in the German, French, and British contexts. The conference also led to networking with research groups working on topics related to police accountability, such as a working group on police violence and a research group developing a large-scale quantitative study of police complaints bodies. Researchers from the project 'Police Accountability: Towards International Standards' made multiple presentations on a range of aspects, and organised two panels. The paper is currently being prepared as an article. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://esc-eurocrim.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Eurocrim_2022_-_Program_-_part_1_of_2.pdf |
| Description | Stakeholder event for police and complaints practitioners, 2 Sept 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The event brought together academics from the UK, Germany, France, Canada and Japan with police complaints practitioners, police, and criminal justice practitioners to present the project research and outcomes on emerging police complaints schemes with experienced UK practitioners. The aim was twofold: 1) to promote cross-fertilisation of ideas between international academics working on emerging schemes and experienced UK complaint practitioners, criminal justice representatives, and police practitioners; 2) to raise awareness among UK practitioners of the international dimensions of developing independent police complaints schemes, and the pioneering position of the three UK police complaints schemes (the Independent Office for Police Complaints for England and Wales; the Scottish Police Investigation and Review Commissioner; The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland). The event allowed academics from abroad to question UK practitioners about the functioning in practice of police complaints handling, cross-institutional cooperation, and their assessment of advantages and challenges within the current legal-institutional structures. The UK practitioners were very interested in realising being at the international forefront of international developments of police-public relations in terms of police accountability, and learn about the challenges facing emerging police complaints schemes in Germany, France, Canada, and Japan. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |