Over the past decade or so, many jurisdictions around the world have continued to struggle with common challenges and developments in police governance and accountability. Each in its own way has been responding by: investigating the nature and extent of corruption and abuse; identifying and selling, to police and public alike, reforms that will offer effective remedies and diminish the prospects of recurrence; attempting to strike a balance between fairness and transparency in accountability measures with the demands of managerial efficiency and effectiveness in crime prevention and detection. Even as these responses are being rolled out the landscape in which they will operate is being re-shaped by broader political, sociological and technological developments at local, national and international levels. Globalisation processes; the widening gap between wealth and poverty even in the rich western-style democracies; the deepening of conflict between social, economic and political interest groups; the growing human rights consciousness; threats from international terrorism and organised crime; advances in DNA technology; increasing reliance on covert surveillance and data interception; the growing sophistication of ‘less-lethal' weapons at the disposal of the police; and the dismantling of national barriers to police cooperation and law enforcement, to mention only a few, present governance and accountability challenges on an unprecedented scale.

This conference brings together leading experts from across the globe to discuss these issues and developments from national, European, international and comparative perspectives. It aims to identify transferable strategies and processes that might be deployed to promote transparency, fairness and efficiency in combating police corruption and abuse and to mainstream human rights standards in police governance and accountability.