An expert panel, which included Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Chair of Great Britain’s Independent Police Complaints Commission Nick Hardwick, discussed methods to avoid police corruption in the delicate post-9/11 world in a forum titled “Policing Democracies in Times of Terror” at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Tuesday.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, increasing numbers of baggage searches have raised issues with the police’s respect for civil rights.
Chris Stone, a Harvard criminal justice professor and the panel’s moderator, started the discussion by asking Kelly whether police oversight should be performed through internal operations — through the internal affairs bureau — or external operations though an independent council.
“Internal [policing] is the best way to prevent corruption,” Kelly said, emphasizing the importance of internal review of police operations, despite the risks it might pose. “You have to be able to put at risk people’s careers if they are not willing to cooperate.”
Kelly, who was police commissioner during the 9/11 attacks and was President Bill Clinton’s original choice for FBI Director, said the NYPD makes a conscious effort to appropriately handle baggage scans on subways, careful to not infringe citizens’ constitutional rights. Kelly said police methods have been successful and cited a poll that found 85 percent of New Yorkers did not mind bag searches.
“What we have is a regiment in use now which has continued to reduce crime,” Kelly said.
Hardwick said that although internal policing methods have proved beneficial for New York, the external oversight performed by the IPCC has been successful for Britain.
“What we say is that, no matter how mighty you are, the law is above you,” he said of the commission’s police oversight responsibilities.
Hardwick elaborated on the importance of the IPCC, citing its investigation that found police wrongly shot and killed a Brazilian immigrant, mistakenly suspected of carrying a bomb onto a subway several days after the London bombings.
Harwick said he considers the community’s confidence in the police as the most important factor in keeping the police in check.
“We trust even more in a system that, if you abuse that power, you will be held accountable,” he said.
O’Toole said the BPD has done a “great job at handling its own dirty laundry,” although external oversight committees have been implemented, notably in the Victoria Snellgrove case in which a Boston police officer shot and killed the Emerson College student with a pellet gun during the Red Sox riots in October 2004.
After Snellgrove’s death, an independent committee was formed to oversee police operations for the first time in the history of the BPD, according to O’Toole.
Stone concluded the event by saying he valued each city’s respective policing methods, and they are all connected by the same fundamental ideals of trust and confidence between the police and their citizens.
Hardwick added that the panel’s conversation was successful because it opened an important discussion on how to gain the public’s trust.
“You are more likely to trust the system if you think it’s accountable,” Hardwick said.
