Courts and Police Misconduct Investigations

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Police Accountability

Abstract

This Article examines the relationship between state prosecutors, federal prosecutors, and the Civil Rights Division inside the United States Department of Justice responsible for conducting police misconduct investigations and prosecutions. Experienced prosecutors may reject exogenous support because they understand it as disruptive and oppressive surveillance by outsiders. Results demonstrate that growing demands for police accountability confront established occupational scaffolds and federal collaboration threatens longstanding notions of occupational autonomy, prosecutorial esteem, and risks oversight by outsiders.

Author

• Ilana Friedman, University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law