However, only the Northern Ireland Ombudsman conforms Conclusionĭuring the last decade, independent oversight of police complaints has been established in all UK jurisdictions. The newest addition is the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, which was established with powers to review police internal investigations, while the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and the Independent Police Complaints Commission for England and Wales have the power to independently investigate police conduct. DiscussionĮach of the UK's three jurisdictions now has an independent agency to oversight complaints against Police. These themes are discussed in relation to the key areas of (1) the balance of responsibility between police and oversight agencies and (2) agency partnerships towards police reform.

While the three agencies differ in their roles and functions, there are several key themes of importance and overlap in their experiences of oversighting police. In order to identify their functions, systematic searches were conducted, primarily using online Results

As noted, the three UK oversight agencies are the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in England and Wales, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS), and the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI). The current research focuses on issues associated with the handling of complaints against police in the UK, with specific focus on the mechanisms for external oversight. For example, in 2009 the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Method To date, the most notable developments have been in English-speaking countries (Smith, 2009a), although oversight is increasingly part of any agenda for improved police accountability and governance world-wide. External (or ‘civilian’) oversight of police is a growing phenomenon internationally that has seen the creation of numerous review and/or investigative bodies and the expansion of their powers and resources (Finn, 2001).

Police oversight