Unit 8: Law, Courts, and Procedure

Scrutiny of the Police

Public and private organizations differ in the following ways: the legal basis between the two differ. Public institutions are most often created through constitutional or legislative means. What constitutes success for public organizations is less clearly definable and measurable than it is for private enterprise where success is measured by profit. Public and private entities have different primary funding sources. Public entities have some sort of public funding as their source and the services provided by public agencies are generally ofa more urgent or essential nature. Traditionally, public agencies have been subject to closer scrutiny and formal criticisms than have their private counterparts.

Special investigative bodies have sometimes been used to scrutinize police department operations. Examples include the Wickersham and Knapp Commissions in New York, the Christopher Commission in Los Angeles, and the St. Clair Commission in Boston. These bodies are most often used to investigate allegations of police misconduct (e.g. Knapp commission allegations of police corruption in NYC, which was depicted in the movie “Serpico”).

There has also been significant court oversight of police operations, e.g. the “due process revolution” between 1961 and 1969 by the U. S. Supreme Court, which resulted in various landmark decisions, such as Miranda.