Accountability

"Accountability refers to the mechanisms by which both law enforcement officers and the agencies they serve are held responsible for promoting social order, reducing crime, and treating each individual fairly and within the limits of the law" (Chambliss, 2011). The three dimensions of police accountability are accountability to the public, accountability to the law, and accountability to each other (other members of the police force. If one were to look at the most fundamental dimension of police accountability, such as accountability to the public, one would see just how crucial this is: "It both defines and protects citizens' rights while also promoting a collective sense of faith in the larger criminal justice system" (Chambliss, 2011).

The three E's are "Effectiveness -- whether police accomplish what they are supposed to do: A. Do they effectively control crime? B. Are they successful in arresting offenders? Efficiency-- whether they accomplish their tasks in a cost-effective manner. 3. Equity -- whether they accomplish their tasks in a fair manner; do they treat all citizens equally?"(Katz, 2002). The way that the three E's interact is largely a complex process. Sometimes police officers will feel that in order to live up to one of the E's they have to sacrifice another tenet of the three E's. However, this should absolutely not be the case; officers should try to live up to as many of the E's as possible.

Factors Influencing Accountability

Supervision activities generally entail monitoring officers under one's command on a consistent basis; having sergeants appear at the scene of serious occurrences (Katz, 2002). Sergeants and other higher-ups need to be ready to provide advice and guidance of those under them, and always be ready to take command of a given situation (Katz, 2004). Sergeants are the ones who review written reports and approve them or provide help if such reports...

This description of routine supervision makes lucid why routine supervision is quite so important to police officers. Officers need guidance just as they need someone monitoring them to make sure that they're following code.
As stated earlier, organization culture has everything to do with corruption. "Corruption flourishes in departments in which the organizational culture tolerates or ignores it" (Chambliss, 2011). This is the culture takes a clear stance on corruption, it won't thrive as quickly and pervasively; one way this can occur is via close supervision. Close supervision develops a higher level of transparency, which makes it harder for corruption to occur. Implementation of a policy which focuses on the defense of life is a strong opponent to the "use of force" protocol. This policy generally narrows and places a hold on the ability of police officers to use deadly force in defending other officers and other people from immediate harm. The problem of performance evaluations is that they may not accurately judge an officer's real work or may not accurately reflect their performance; they haven't been used successfully for giving promotions or placing officers in positions and they suffer from a general lack of clarity or they're overly lean or inflated (Katz, 2002).