Restorative Processes and Police Complaints

Police complaints boards are using restorative processes to resolve community complaints against officers.

Rare legal settlements demand officers pay too

from the article by Steve Mills in the chicago Tribune: To settle a wrongful-conviction lawsuit against the Chicago police, the city recently agreed to pay Harold Hill $1.25 million. What never became public was that, to reach the settlement late last year, two detectives in the case that sent Hill to prison for 12 years for a rape and murder he insisted he did not commit agreed to contribute, too. It was not much next to the total settlement — $7,500 each — yet it apparently meant something to Hill.

Police apologise over child murders probe

from the article on BBC News: Scotland's largest police force has apologised for a series of failures in its handling of a double child murder. Strathclyde Police said that it was "extremely sorry" for the way Giselle Ross was treated after the deaths of her sons, Paul, six, and Jay, two. The children were murdered by their father Ashok Kalyanjee at a beauty spot in the Campsie Fells in May 2008.

Harvard scholar versus Cambridge police

President Obama introduceg the idea of victim-offender dialogue. He brought the two sides to the table to talk. This is extremely important. Thank you for [...]

Great perspective

Thanks for the insight Lisa. I agree that Obama's initiative had great practical value and points to restorative values. I like the symbolism of these [...]

Race and Gender both count

hi folks.. Lisa, thanks for your thoughtful comments. I was traveling in Australia when this happened and had an interesting conversation with a friend of [...]

Restorative justice/racial profiling/racism

Hello, Henry. Great to see your comments. I think you pointed out a number of important points here. I liked your first point in particular [...]

meeting at the White House

Thanks, Janine for your comments & the link to your site and your blog. I will read it carefully. I agree with you that the [...]

restorative justice/racial profiling

Hello, Avo. Great to hear from you. Do you have issues related to the targeting of certain types of individuals due to their racial, ethnic/or [...]

Restorative Beer

Yes, there was no doubt in my mind when I heard Obama offer the "biergarten conversation" that he was using the "teachable moment" as he [...]

Arresting Racism in the USA

Yes, Lisa, the case was touched in estonian newspapers too. They had more attention on topic what bier was on the table in White House, [...]

Arresting Racism in the USA

It will be a wonderful day in America when a mediated dialogue after an incident like this is considered normal. Of course, they all can't [...]

The Beer Summit

I do think that it would have been helpful to have a neutral intervene among the various people who were involved in this conflict. See: [...]

cop vs. professor

Thank you for the great commentary Lisa! President Obama provided a wonderful service by modeling how conflicting people can communicate and come to understand each [...]

Harvard scholar versus Cambridge police

by Lisa Rea Most of us have heard all about the police incident in Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of Harvard Square. A Harvard scholar by the name of Henry Louis Gates was arrested at his home after a neighbor called the police concerned someone was breaking into the house. This occurred at 12:30pm after Gates had just returned to his home from an international flight to China.

Dobry, Josephine. A view from the Police Complaints Authority

The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in England is an independent organization established by Parliament. Receiving and deciding on thousands of recorded complaints against the police each year, it has powers to supervise the most serious and high profile of such complaints. The PCA has been collaborating with the Thames Valley Police since 1998 to introduce the principles of restorative justice into the complaints process. On this basis, and following a period of consultation and planning, a pilot project was launched in the Thames Valley in the spring of 2000. Jo Dobry, a member of the PCA, discusses the reasons for a restorative approach in the complaints process and the prospects for profound change in the complaint system.

Smith, Graham. Rethinking Police Complaints

Procedures for dealing with complaints against the police have been at the centre of police reform fort he last half-century. This paper departs from the traditional 'who investigates' approach and managerial orthodoxy to consider the primary functions of the complaints process. Four causes of complaints are identified- unprofessional behaviour, criminal conduct, tortious action, and unacceptable policy- and four functions are considered- managerial, liability, restorative, and accountability. It is concluded that in order to effectively and efficiently deal with the various causes of complaint, the two-tier system is required to deal with complaints that allege unprofessional behaviour and criminal conduct, and a third, separate tier, is necessary to consider unacceptable police policy. (author's abstract).

Berger, Vivian. Civilians Versus Police: Mediation Can Help to Bridge the Divide

The increasing frequency of notorious cases of conflicts between police officers and members of the general public (which in New York City has led to incidents of death, battery, and sexual assault) is cause for alarm. At the root of many police-community conflicts is an incomplete understanding of the work of the police, poor communication on the part of the police and the public, or simple misunderstanding. A number of communities, including New York City, are turning to mediation to provide a forum for the potential resolution of complaints made against police by citizens. After a brief survey of the work of such programs nationally, the author focuses on three new York cases in which she served as a mediator, using them to illustrate the pitfalls and special rewards of mediating in this context. The author believes that the mediation process itself can work in a transformative way, improving strained relations between police and the general population. Author abstract.

Young, Richard and Cooper, Karen and Hill, Roderick and Hoyle, Carolyn. Informal Resolution of Complaints Against the Police: A Quasi-Experimental Test of Restorative Justice

In many jurisdictions it is increasingly recognized that police complaints systems should contain a mixture of formal and less formal procedures, as well as allow for a variety of outcomes including remedial and punitive ones. Recent changes to the system for handling complaints against the police in England and Wales envisage an expanded role for local (informal) resolution, with a new range of options including restorative justice conferences. Yet little is known about whether complainants would welcome the option of a restorative justice conference or whether restorative processes would constitute an improvement on conventional practices. This article presents the results of a Nuffield Foundation funded study of these issues carried out in 2002–3 in two police force areas. The findings suggest that restorative processes can achieve moderately better results than conventional processes. While widespread implementation of this new approach is likely to prove problematic for many police services, a flexible approach to introducing changes, drawing on the experience of restorative practitioners in related areas, is likely to benefit complainants without creating dissatisfaction among police officers. (authors' abstract)

Blackler, John and Miller, Seumas. Ethical Issues in Policing

This book, as Seumas Miller and John Blackler state at the outset, is a contribution to the literature on police ethics. They write from the perspective of applied philosophy. Miller is a professional philosopher. Blackler was for a long time an officer in the New South Wales (Australia) Police Service. As such, they hope to bring to their subject a unique and integrated mix of ethico-philosophical analysis and practitioner knowledge and experience. Their fundamental point in the book is this: the central and most important purpose of the institution of the police is the protection of moral rights. In substantiating and elaborating this point, they concentrate on a normative account of the institution of the police. That is, they do not attempt to provide a descriptive account of what the police have actually done or really do on a day to day basis. They want to detail what policing ought to be about in essential orientation and practice. Likewise, they do not seek a theory about police methods or strategies – that is, best practice in policing. They focus, rather, on what they conceive to be the proper ends and distinctive means of the police as an institution. In this framework, they examine the following topics: a theory of policing based on the enforcement of moral rights; authority and discretion in policing; the moral justification for the use of deadly force in policing; privacy, confidentiality, and security in policing; corruption and anti-corruption in policing; and restorative justice in policing. In their chapter on restorative justice and policing, they note that imprisonment is one of the most obvious harmful methods employed by police. To the extent that restorative justice is seen, at least in part, as a response to the perceived failure of imprisonment to effect positive change in offenders, Miller and Blackler construe restorative justice in policing as an attempt to redress the imbalance that occurs when the moral rights of victims are harmed by offenders.

May, Tiggey and Warburton, Hamish and Hough, Mike. Opposite Sides of the Same Coin: Police Perspectives on Informally Resolved Complaints. A report for the Police Foundation

This report presents findings from the first phase of a research project examining the informal resolution (IR) of police complaints. It documents current administrative practices and procedures, largely from the perspective of those involved in the implementation of IR. It also assesses the views and perceptions of operational police officers. There is clear variation in the use of IR across force areas. Those responsible for implementing IR tend to regard it as a useful management tool and an effective mechanism for dealing with minor police complaints. However, police officers exposed to the procedure often feel powerless in the process and think that it provides little by way of fairness or justice. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which replaces the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in April 2004, intends to strengthen and, where appropriate, expand the use of IR. The authors provide a number of suggestions and recommendations to help the IPCC achieve these aims. Authors' abstract.