Police accountability mechanisms in preventing crime versus the protection against abuse of power

Police Accountability in England and Wales Author’s Name The Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor Name Assignment Due Date Introduction Based on the international standard of accountability, the police is accountable for its actions and policy, aiming to protect citizens from crimes and maintain stable law and order without compromising fundamental human rights. In England and Wales, the police system follows more or less the same accountability procedure, as the country is a signatory to The European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) (Jones 2012, p.723). However, understanding the effectiveness of policy accountability in England and Wales requires an understanding of the organizational structure of the UK police, as unlike police forces of other countries, it comprises forty-three organizations monitoring and implementing laws in various regions (Mawby & Wright 2005, p 2). In general, the UK government has outlined twelve key principles for undertaking accountability of policing, and these principles aim to strike a balance between the maintenance of law and order and the protection of civil liberties (Lennon et al., 2023, p 6; Raine 2015, p.98). However, effective evaluation of this accountability system is mandatory to estimate whether it maintains the balance between the protection of liberty and the prevention of crimes, and the following discussion undertakes this task. Discussion One of the core aspects of the accountability mechanism for the UK’s police system is the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), which provides a fundamental framework for monitoring police conduct. Accordingly, this law enables authorities to monitor police activities in domains such as their action against the people in police custody, the authenticity of the proof they present, and the implementation of an effective complaint mechanism (Zander 2011, p.2). This law enables the government and civil society to monitor the police code of conduct. In case of any violation, they are authorized by the law to repeal the cases filed against the alleged criminals. Moreover, any breach of the official code of conduct makes the police officials liable to appropriate disciplinary action (BALCIOĞLU and Erkan 2015, p.32). Hence, these primary accountability laws provide an effective accountability mechanism for monitoring UK police. Previously, different governments have implemented various police accountability reforms to make the UK police more accountable to the public and civil society. For instance, the labor government expanded the accountability regimes between 1997 and 2010; later, the Conservative-led coalition government implemented further reforms from 2010 onwards (Murphy et al. 2017, p.2). These reforms have made the UK police accountability regime more people-friendly. It has improved the police’s downward accountability by granting the public sufficient access to data about police activities and people in police custody. In addition, the new accountability mechanism has integrated the elected police and crime commissioners for effective and unbiased monitoring of police activities (Murphy et al. 2017, p.2). One may infer from this argument that increased police accountability mechanisms in modern England and Wales may improve police performance regarding respect for human rights. The government has developed several other mechanisms that improve police performance regarding its ability to prevent crimes and maintain a balance between controlling criminals and protecting human rights. Establishing the National Audit Office has improved the government’s ability to monitor police accounts and financial transactions for greater accountability. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and Independent Police Complaint Commission have been regarded as instruments of greater police accountability in England and Wales (Murphy et al. 2017, p.2). To improve police performance related to crime prevention and protection of liberties, the elected police and crime commissioners have proved their mettle (Murphy et al. 2017, p.12). These aspects of the accountability mechanism have significantly improved the police’s capability to imp...