During the 1970's and 1980's several countries in the West introduced policies that permitted citizens to have an active role in the oversight of the police. What prompted the establishment of these policies was a failure by police organizations to address effectively instances of police misconduct. Before the 1970's police misconduct was essentially handled internally by police organizations. Citizens oversight was an attempt to bring a degree of external oversight of the police. The term citizens oversight of police can have several uses. For the purposes of this paper, it is associated with efforts that either modestly alter or dramatically change the manner in which police departments handle complaints about questionable police conduct. The author uses the Detroit (United States) system of citizens oversight of police as an example of such an effort. The system in England and Wales is also briefly profiled. Citizens oversight schemes have only experienced a modest degree of success over the years, and these achievements have been limited to countries in the West. There are apparently some common characteristics associated with countries that have embraced the scheme thus far. Three factors are particularly significant: the role of democracy in the political process, the legal family with which the country is associated, and the manner in which the justice system is administered. The prospects for countries in Eastern and Central Europe to develop citizens oversight schemes are not good. One reason is that the adoption and implementation of democracy as the political system of choice is still in its infancy. Basic democratic structures and procedures of government must mature before this concept could even be considered. Further, these countries' socialist history and current trend toward the establishment of a civil law system tend to deter the establishment of citizens oversight schemes. 4 notes