Internal Affairs In The Police Department

The general public has come to believe that a lot of what they know about the term “Internal Affairs” is at often times correct and they know what the process is and how everything works. However, this is usually not the case because almost everything that we see on TV or in the media is typically false. Internal Affairs agencies within most of the police departments in the United States are responsible for helping to ensure police ethics and integrity within their respective agencies by investigating the conduct of the officers, particularly citizen complaints of officer misconduct. Having an internal affairs department is one of the most important means of ensuring a police agency’s adherence to community policing principles and acquiring …show more content…
However, the citizens of the community typically accuse the police officers that at some point do get accused of such things. on a normal basis these citizens file complaints against police officers because of something they did, something they failed to do of something they think the officers did. When these things happen and these complaints are filed, they are normally handled by that police officers first level supervisor. The steps that this process requires are quite simple and time efficient to complete. It requires your supervisor to hear the citizen’s story (often times the citizen is asked to say it sevel times), the supervisor must give the person accusing the officer a reasonable explanation for the actions of such officer, and finally the supervisor must make a promise to the citizen that the officer is going to be called in and be spoken to. Once that officer is taken in to the supervisor’s office, he or she is asked to give a version of their story and explain the details in the officers eyes and how he or she saw it. If the supervisor is happy with that police officers story and explanation and with their professionalism, the whole matter typically ends there. However, if the matter does not stay there and the supervisor decides to take it to the next level, this demands and official investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau of the police …show more content…
Due to the sensitive nature of having such a dangerous and delicate job that this one is, in most departments officers of the Internal Affairs unit are not detectives and do not take the role of one, however, they do report all of their gatherings and research directly to the chief of police and the board of civilian police commissioners. the small number of Internal Affairs investigators are required to follow very stringent rules and are bound by strict policies. For example, the POBR (peace officers bill of rights) in California mandated a set of rules found in the states government codes attempts to control these investigators and their investigations. The functions of an Internal Affairs unit within a Police Department, is not simply to enforce certain rules or maintain certain policies in place, but rather to only report to the people stated above. What is the purpose of having an Internal Affairs department and why is it so essential for a police department to have one? The purpose of having an Internal Affairs unit is essentially to investigate and discover the actual truth of what happened in a specific event and when an officer is accused of some form of