British Chief Constables: The Americanization of a Role?

Abstract

The accountability of the police has become momentarily as live a political issue in Britain as it has always been in the United States. The relationship implied in the term accountability is essentially one of agency, and presupposes the demonstrability and regularity of the relationship. In both the United States and Britain, the corporate accountability of the police has come to be exercised and articulated through chiefs of police and chief constables. In the United States, however, the professional autonomy of chiefs of police owes much to a strategy of reform designed to free urban police forces from the corrupting influence of partisan politics, whereas in Britain what has been called the ‘uncontrolled authority’ of chief constables is the result of an oblique approach to the entire question of the accountability of the police. While rejecting ‘politics' chief constables are assuming a more prominent politico-administrative role and are endeavouring to establish a more direct relationship with public opinion.