Establishing an actual and significant connection between regulation enforcement businesses and the group is crucial to a group policing mannequin. A part of that mannequin should be a approach for police to deal with citizen complaints. But, Jennifer Knight, Deputy Police Chief, Columbus, Ohio, says the standard criticism investigative mannequin has not produced passable outcomes conducive to improved community-police relations.
The rationale why the outdated mannequin doesn’t work is kind of easy. It’s designed to judge particular incidents of contact between residents and the police division, with narrowly-defined conclusions then assessed towards written inner insurance policies. What outcomes is a hard and fast final result that not often contributes to resolving the underlying points at hand.
To this finish, Jennifer Knight believes different strategies of addressing citizen complaints should be explored.
Why Regulation Enforcement Maintains Citizen Criticism Methods
There are three principal the explanation why regulation enforcement businesses preserve a system to deal with citizen criticism investigations.
A strong system can contribute to constructing belief and delivering transparency to the group. It additionally helps establish problematic behaviors carried out by regulation enforcement personnel and offers a mechanism for change and intervention.
Lastly, such a system units forth a typical course of to resolve grievances whereas additionally selling understanding and communication between the group and regulation enforcement personnel.
It’s this third pillar, in line with Jennifer Knight, Deputy Police Chief, that usually deteriorates, and typically fails, inside regulation enforcement. Due to this, regulation enforcement businesses should re-evaluate their present construction for dealing with citizen complaints to know whether or not they’re serving to to realize the specified objectives.
Mediation is a Viable Various
A viable different to the standard citizen criticism mannequin is mediation. Suppose any different system is to be proposed and adopted. In that case, Jennifer Knight says it should display a profit to all stakeholders, together with the regulation enforcement company and officers, labor unions, and the group at giant.
To that finish, many questions have to be requested throughout the exploration part. Particularly, are the citizen complaints extra happy by mediation than the standard investigative methodology, and are officers extra happy with the outcomes as properly?
Are there fewer future complaints towards regulation enforcement officers who’ve resolved points by mediation reasonably than a standard investigative methodology? Are the instances resolved extra rapidly by mediation?
Then, after these questions are answered, regulation enforcement businesses should assess what particular kind of mediation program would each assist and complement the company’s already-established citizen criticism mannequin.
Jennifer Knight strongly believes mediation is a viable different to the standard citizen criticism mannequin, as it will probably contribute to extra impactful community-police relations.
About Jennifer Knight
Jennifer Knight, Deputy Police Chief in Columbus, Ohio, is understood for dynamic management, revolutionary group engagement, and excellence within the subject of regulation enforcement. After incomes her Juris Physician, she obtained the Nationwide Ladies’s Regulation Affiliation Award of Excellence. Ms. Knight is a robust advocate for girls in regulation enforcement and is a passionate group volunteer.
