Tracing police accountability in theory and practice

Abstract

Police around the world are becoming more accountable for their use of force against civilians. Scholars have contributed to this movement both by building the field conceptually and by working in partnership with officials to construct specific accountability mechanisms. In both roles, scholars have begun to conceive of police accountability in structural terms, as a condition achieved through an array of separate institutional mechanisms. Drawing on examples from Nigeria, England, Brazil and the United States, I explain the receptiveness of police officials to scholarly contributions in three ways: the ideological cleansing of the call for accountability; the collaboration of officials and scholars at moments of police scandal and wholesale reform; and the intervention of theory-to-practice intermediaries.