| Abstrakt: |
As many cities and counties turn to civilian oversight of law enforcement to enhance accountability, resource allocation is a critical issue with which police reform advocates, oversight entity administrators, and political leaders struggle almost every budget cycle. Resources are tremendously important in this context. Historically, lack of resources has been an important, if not the decisive factor leading to an oversight entity's demise. This Article reports on a unique and newly created dataset composed of case management and budgetary information from civilian oversight entities responsible for independent police misconduct investigations. The data were collected and analyzed to provide greater insight into the resources and staffing afforded to these entities while also assessing caseload management challenges. Interviews with civilian oversight entity administrators were conducted to provide context to the observations made from the data collection. The Article is intended to provide guidance to civilian oversight administrators and city leaders in assessing the resource needs of civilian oversight investigative entities. Civilian oversight entities continue to face hurdles when seeking the resources necessary to provide effective investigative oversight. Given tight municipal budgets and the political nature of resources appropriated for public safety needs, once an oversight entity is established at a certain budget level, garnering support for a significant increase in any given budget cycle is an uphill battle. Even entities with statutorily established budgetary minima have difficulty securing the resources they need because city leaders are reluctant to appropriate more than is legally required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
