Police oversight boards are proliferating, but do they actually work?

Experts say civilian oversight boards can be a factor in reforming police conduct, but they have to be empowered with the right tools.

While police oversight boards have been around for decades, a string of high-profile killings in recent years, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, have focused greater scrutiny on the use of force and need to hold officers accountable. The idea behind the civilian oversight of police is to benefit not only those making complaints against officers but the community and even departments themselves. This can work in numbers ways including providing an independent avenue for complaints, discipline and policy changes, according to National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, a non-profit that works with individuals and police agencies to establish and improve civilian oversight. Over the years the number of oversight bodies has proliferated, but the number of police killings has remained consistent. Officers are still rarely charged in those cases and police discipline is largely left to the agencies themselves. So how effective are these civilian groups?