Recognizing and reporting police misconduct across formal and informal pathways

Purpose Law enforcement agencies rely on civilians to co-produce police accountability by acting as an external monitor for law enforcement conduct. Civilians participate in police accountability by submitting complaints to agencies, but may circumvent formal pathways and report the behavior to informal peers. This paper considers how civilian complaint behavior may contribute to a “dark figure” of police misconduct. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administered to a Census-matched group of Americans, asking respondents to indicate their reporting preferences for four realistic misconduct scenarios. Findings The findings show that some people prefer to not engage with law enforcement complaint systems. However, this depends on the identification of misconduct and perceived seriousness of law enforcement misbehavior. Originality/value The research in this paper identifies the unique informal and formal reporting preferences for police misconduct using a novel survey design. Findings from this research demonstrate how informal reporting preferences limit effective internal police accountability systems.