Civilian Oversight Agency Directory Survey

Civilian Oversight Agency Directory Survey

National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE)
About the Civilian Oversight Agency Directory (COAD)

The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) is soliciting all civilian oversight entities in the United States to participate in the following survey in order to develop the first comprehensive directory of all oversight agencies and their characteristics.This dataset will be made available to the public for oversight practitioners, scholars, and academics to use for further advance the field of civilian oversight of law enforcement.

The COAD will also be housed within NACOLE's Civilian Oversight Directory web application. This application, developed with support from the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office, will allow end users to search, filter, and compare oversight agencies across the country by various essential functions and characteristics.

About the Survey

This survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. It will ask a variety of questions about the functions, authority, and structure of your oversight agency. In addition to having an understanding of your agency's functions and structure, respondents are strongly advised to have the following information on-hand before beginning the survey:
- Total budget of your oversight agency for the most recent fiscal year
- Total budget of the law enforcement agency overseen for the most recent fiscal year
- Total number of staff and their positions
- Total number of sworn personnel for all law enforcement agencies overseen and the year for this estimate
- The most recent estimate of the civilian population under your oversight agency's jurisdiction and the year for this estimate
- Year your oversight agency was created
- Level of access to various internal and external sources of information (IA databases, CAD, EWS, personnel files, etc.), including whether your access is "backend" (indirect) or "front-end" (direct)
- Board/commission composition and appointment (where applicable)
- Copies of enabling legislation and any other relevant documentation in either PDF or Microsoft Word format. (file size limit: 100MB per file)
Once you begin the survey, you must complete it in its entirety in order for your oversight agency's information to be submitted.

To make changes or corrections to your submission, please write to mike.vitoroulis@mac.com.

Participating Agencies
To prevent the duplication of efforts, please review the following list to ensure your oversight agency has not already completed the survey:

Basic Agency Information

This section captures some basic information about your oversight agency.
Name of agency:*
Street Address:*
City & State*
Please use state abbreviations. e.g. New York, NY
Phone number*
Website*
Respondent email address:
For internal use. Will not be made public.

Agency Type and Oversight Functions
Civilian oversight agencies are typically categorized as one of three oversight models: investigation-focused, auditor/monitor-focused, or review-focused. For more information about models of civilian oversight, please see NACOLE's report "Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement: Assessing the Evidence". The report can be downloaded from NACOLE's website at http://www.nacole.org/reports_publications.

Contemporary oversight agencies often utilize one general approach to oversight, and may take on additional oversight functions outside the traditional definition of their general approach.The first question asks how your agency would be primarily categorized. This is based off the functions your agency spends most of its time conducting. The second question asks whether or not your oversight agency conducts any additional oversight functions. Please select all that apply, including the option most similar to your selection in the first question.
The general approach of our oversight agency is:*

Auditor/monitor-focused. The office primarily conducts audits of completed department investigations and/or compliance with department policy and procedures OR actively monitors open department investigations and/or compliance with department policies and procedures.Review-focused. The office primarily reviews completed complaint investigations conducted by the overseen law enforcement agency's internal affairs unit for thoroughness, completeness, or accuracy.Investigation-focused. The office primarily conducts investigations of the overseen law enforcement agency separately and independently of the overseen agency's internal affairs unit.
Please indicate any additional oversight functions your agency performs (Check all that apply, including the option that corresponds best to your response to the previous question.):*

Reviews of completed complaint investigations conducted by the overseen law enforcement agency's internal affairs unit for thoroughness, completeness, or accuracy.Audits of completed department investigations and/or compliance with department policy and procedures.Active monitoring of open department investigations and/or compliance with department policies and procedures.Investigates civilian complaints separately and independently of the overseen agency's internal affairs unit.Conducts analyses of patterns or trends in complaints, discipline, and/or department activities, policies, and/or procedures.

Staffing and Personnel

The following set of questions ask about staffing in your oversight agency. Staff titles vary across agencies, so please respond to each question with the position that best matches the functions and roles within your office. Some staff perform multiple roles within their oversight agency. If this is the case, one staff member can be counted more than once if their day-to-day duties span across multiple positions. The counts for paid staff in each position does not need to add up to the total number of paid staff response in the following question.
Please approximate the number of paid staff employed by your oversight agency:*
Does your oversight agency have legal counsel?*

Yes, through city attorney, corporation counsel, or similarYes, through independent legal counselNo
Please approximate the number of paid staff in the following positions.
Director:*
Deputy Director:*
Attorney (acting as agency counsel)*
Investigators:*
Auditors:*
Monitors:*
Community Outreach Specialists:*
Analysts (i.e. research, policy, or legal analysts):*
Database/IT Managers:*
Office Manager:*
Administrative Assistant:*
Are current or former sworn law enforcement members permitted to work as staff at your oversight agency?*

YesNo

Boards and/or Commissions
Does your oversight agency have a volunteer board and/or commission?*

YesNo

Upload Documentation
Enabling Legislation:

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Additional relevant documentation:

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May include memoranda of understanding, collective bargaining agreements, policies and procedures, special reports, et al. Cancelof

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Use the back/next buttons to preview responses before submitting.
Should be Empty:

	Yes	No
Departmental policies or procedures
Discipline
Investigative findings
Officer training or retraining

	Yes	No
New or revised departmental policies or procedures
Discipline
Sworn personnel training or retraining

	Yes	No
Annual reports
Special reports (on policies, procedures, specific issues and/or cases, etc.)
Complaint information and/or statistics
Analyses of department policies and/or trends in discipline, and/or department practices

	Yes	No	Sometimes	N/A
Copies of open internal affairs files and investigations
Copies of closed internal affairs files and investigations
Front-end access to internal affairs databases
Back-end access to internal affairs databases

	Yes	No	Sometimes	N/A
Early Warning System records
Computer-aided dispatch records
Officer Personnel files
Body-Worn/In-Car Video
Stop, search, or arrest records
Use of force records
All electronic department databases including but not limited to the items listed above (e.g. roll call, internal memos, internal investigations not initiated by citizen complaint, etc.)

Civilian Oversight Agency Directory Survey

Basic Agency Information

Local Oversight Structure

Agency Type and Oversight Functions

Staffing and Personnel

Boards and/or Commissions

Boards and/or Commissions

Scope of Authority & Operations

Access to Information

Upload Documentation

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