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Police Powers and Accountability in a Democratic Society: Introductory Report

NCJ Number
185264
Journal
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2000 Pages: 237-245
Author(s)
Joachim Kersten
Date Published
September 2000
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article introduces the reports presented at the Twelfth Criminological Colloquium (Strasbourg, November 24-26, 1999), which focused on what is happening in Europe in relation to the police, police ethics, and human rights in democratic societies.
Abstract
The first report rejects some simplistic assumptions at the core of the debate about police power and accountability, namely, that more safety achieved by police action automatically results in less freedom for citizens and that a higher level of police efficiency must necessarily produce infringements of civil rights. The report then provides an overview of the existing network of internal, administrative, parliamentarian, judiciary, and civil control agencies and mechanisms in European countries that monitor and control abuses of police authority. The concept of ethical standards is introduced as a means of effective police management. This concept appears in other reports. Accountability of police powers apparently is an issue in democracies that over the decades have enjoyed relatively stable political, social and economic conditions. Still, there are occasional or even structural crises in social order. These are examined in one of the reports. Another report assesses the "dialectical coexistence of continuity and discontinuity" in policing that is typical of societies in transition. This affects a number of countries in Europe. A Hungarian report gives a practical example of the lack of consensus in criminology about the efficiency of external and/or internal mechanisms for controlling the police; however, ombudsmen or police complaints' authorities are symbolic means of enhancing police accountability. Other reports provide a typology of police deviance and a battery of remedies, the expansion of private security police in many European countries and the problems presented by this, and how fear of crime among the public affects crime-control and policing policies.