I. POLICE BRUTALITY AND CITIZEN OVERSIGHT
To properly understand the sweeping developments in citizen oversight that have occurred in recent decades, it is useful to understand the storied history of police brutality that produced them. Police departments have been plagued by a culture which not only supports, but actively facilitates the inhumane treatment of suspects. The roots of police brutality in the United States span across centuries and have continually targeted poor and minority populations. Well-documented and rampant brutality throughout the 19th and 20th centuries eventually led to the emergence of citizen oversight in two forms: state-sanctioned complaint review boards and the considerably more radical approach of militant community organizations.
