Law Enforcement Accountability
When the U.S Constitution was drafted, its authors intended many of its provisions to constrain police, “to limit what police can do and to protect the rights of us all, including those who are suspected and accused of crimes,” (Erwin Chemerinsky). And yet generations of poor and non-white people in this country can tell many stories of how they have been affected by the ineffectiveness of the Supreme Court in enforcing the provisions of the Constitution. Disappointingly, it has consistently “empowered police and legitimated the racialized policing that especially harms people of color.”
One way criminal legal advocates have found solutions to this stark problem is to create civilian commissions tasked with holding law enforcement accountable. Appointed by local legislators and granted less-than-sweeping power by city and county charters, these commissions seek to enhance fair and professional law enforcement responsive to community needs. They respond to resident complaints about discriminatory policing practices, they listen to law enforcement commanders evaluating police response before, during and after an officer-involved shooting, and they review administrative discipline for fairness and consistency. Some commissions have investigatory powers, others rely on police agencies to provide them with investigative reports. But all are responsive to the community and to the elected local bodies which appointed them.
The Public Defenders Office has its own law enforcement accountability section that monitors conduct by the sworn peace officers of nearly one hundred law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County.
To Read About the Attorney General’s Investigations of Officer-Involved Shootings: https://oag.ca.gov/ois-incidents/current-cases
Los Angeles Police Department:
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department: