OVERSIGHT OF THE POLICE BY NGOs AND SCHOLARS

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OVERSIGHT OF THE POLICE BY NGOs AND SCHOLARS

• by Hugo Frühling
• Police Accountability and the Quality of
  Oversight Conference
• ALTUS 2005

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MAIN OBJECTIVES OF PRESENTATION

• Identify role and activities of NGOs and scholars
  regarding police accountability
• Describe more generally political and contextual
  factors that determine the impact of particular
  programs and research projects
• Describe a few recent examples in Latin America
• Define variables that make them promising or
  successful

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Functions Performed by NGOs and Scholars
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Promising Examples of NGOs and Scholars Gaining
Influence on Police Changes

• The telling case of CELS in Argentina and its
  Influence on legal reforms (1994 to date)
• Documenting police violence
• Reporting trends in police violence
• Monitoring legal changes
• Media campaigns
• Forming international coalitions

5
Scholars and Police Violence in Brazil

• Human rights critics on police violence
• Development of scholarship in the area
• Emergence of first research centers
• University training courses for police officers
  (Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Amapá, Rio Grande do
  Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia)
• Collaboration in the implementation and
  evaluation of community policing projects
• Evaluation of the ouvidurias
• Where is the reform of the police going?

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A Few Shortcomings of NGOs and Scholars

• NGOs seem to be most efective in setting the
  agenda and less so in producing enduring reform
  outcomes
• Still, few ambitious research projects with
  access to a whole array of data

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Factors determining the impact of oversight by
NGOs and scholars

• Structure of Political Opportunities
• Police size, organizational complexity and
  relationship to the structure of government
• The ambiguous effect of police corporateness and
  professionalism

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New and Promising Examples of Oversight by Civil
Society Actors

• Insydes intervention in Naucalpan (2005)
• Development of a methodology to analyze the
  internal accountability system within the police
• Working with police municipal authorities to
  agree on a reform agenda
• Institutionalizing changes

9
Centers for the Prevention of Police Abuse in
Dominican Republic (2005)

• Implemented this year by the Human Rights
  Institute of Santo Domingo, Dominican Committee
  for Human Rights and the National Police
• Objective independent human rights groups
  receive , register and chanel citizens
  complaints to the police
• They publish every year four public reports on
  the complaints received and on how they were
  disposed by the Police

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Continuation

• A final annual report containing all complaints
  received, as well as result of investigations
  carried out.
• Lessons learned regarding training needs in the
  police

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Research on Police Violence and Advocacy Groups
in Argentina and Chile

• Claudio Fuentes research on police violence in
  Chile uncovers an invisible reality
  Denunciations of police abuse have increased
  steadily from 1990 to 2004
• This increase is not correlated to the frequency
  of crimes or number of arrests by the police
• Judicial action on this matter is highly
  ineffective
• No ccesible public information on internal
  investigations or number of abuses denounced

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Promising research projects

• Analysis of working relations between prosecutors
  and detectives in Valparaiso, as well as impact
  of institutional changes within the police (CESC)
  (2005)
• Evaluation of Mexican human rights ombudsmen and
  their handling of complaints on police abuses
  (FUNDAR)

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What makes a project on oversight a successful
one?

• It uses a strategy that it is most appropriate
  for its objectives (confrontation or
  collaboration)
• It is persistent in time, rather than a one time
  project
• It disseminates knowledge learned to a diversity
  of social sectors
• It establishes alliances with sectors within the
  governmental structure.