Police Accountability – towards international standards POLARCS

Project Description

Against the backdrop of increased powers and resources granted to police agencies for combatting 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.