Police Accountability in Comparative Historical Perspective

Very little historical research exists on police accountability to individual citizens for periods before the 1960s, but that has changed. A literature on police accountability has emerged in the United States, Britain, France, and Germany. Distinguishing police accountability to individuals from police accountability to “the public,” it identifies major gaps in understanding of citizens’ access and willingness to challenge police behavior through complaints procedures and courts. Comparative research demonstrates significant misconceptions, particularly in France and Germany, where interpretations have been shaped by sympathies or antipathies toward earlier political regimes. Long-term interpretations have been based on assumptions about governance within specific political regimes or on extrapolations based on theories about the effects of democracy and professionalization of police personnel on accountability. Conceptions of “democratic policing” and “professionalization” as explanations for greater police accountability do not conform with historical realities.