The development, during the late 1950's and the 1960's, of a number of external review mechanisms to monitor citizen complaints against the police, either in addition to or as replacements for existing internal review mechanisms, led to a polarization of opinions on the issue by the end of the 1960's. These opinions and their related arguments have, despite the passage of time, remained largely unchanged to the present day. Those who opposed the existing internal review mechanisms were drawn mainly from civil rights and civil liberties organizations. Those who supported the continuation of internal review mechanisms were mainly police associations and conservative groups. Because of the polarizing effect of the emerging arguments, a number of writers in the late 1960's and the early 1970's began searching for some middle ground in the debate. This middle ground was the concept of a police ombudsman, who would be an executive officer of the highest prestige and integrity whose powers would be limited to investigating and criticizing public agencies in direct response to complaints from private citizens. There have been a number of significant developments in the area of complaints investigation in the United States during the 1980's, which may have future wide-ranging implications for communities and police departments searching for improvements in their existing procedures. Specifically, two relatively new organizations which take a particular interest in the investigation of complaints against the police -- the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and the International Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement -- have been formed; and a third organization, the Police Executive Research Forum, has also become involved in researching the area and identifying future implications for police departments. The work of these three organizations in the area of police complaints investigation and review is discussed. 70 references and 5 study questions