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Accountability
Definition
Police accountability requires police officers and the institutions to which they belong to explain, justify and answer for their conduct. Individual police officers are obliged to account internally to their superiors and to an internal investigation unit and, in established and emerging democracies, to external, independent accountability institutions. At the political level, police organizations commonly answer to a senior member of government (such as a police minister, attorney-general or general directorate of public security).
Distinctive Features
Police accountability structures and processes are determined by the nature of a sovereign state and its particular political system. For example, in totalitarian regimes the police are the tool of government and are used by those in power to exercise authoritarian control over citizens in general and to suppress any opposition ...
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