Thanks to Jeff Thompson for highlighting this press release on the NYPD website – Police Officers Encouraged to use Mediation for Resolving Civilian Complaints.
New York police have been running a scheme for the past couple of years encouraging the use of mediation to resolve complaints against officers. The scheme is not used where criminal investigations are ongoing or pending. The scheme also appears voluntary for both officers and complainants and complainants can at any time come out of the process and ask for the complaint to formally investigated. Mediated complaints are not considered by the Department when reviewing on an officer’s employment record.
Complaints against the police can take up considerable time and resources to resolve. This pioneering scheme in New York involving a mediator is a solution worth examining. It appears to provide satisfaction to complainants whilst officers meet face to face and hear directly in a controlled environment from the complainant.
The use of mediation in police work was also highlighted by experienced mediator Philip Bartle QC in his article Policing protests: would mediation help? reported in the Times. Thanks to Justin Patten at Human Law for this link.
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