Abstract The accountability of police to the public is imperative for a functioning democracy. The opinions of police executives—pivotal actors for implementing oversight policies—are an understudied, critical component of successful reform efforts. We use a pre‐registered survey experiment administered to all U.S. municipal police chiefs and county sheriffs to assess whether police executives’ attitudes towards civilian oversight are responsive to 1) state‐level public opinion (drawing on an original n = 16,840 survey) and 2) prior adoption of civilian review boards in large agencies. Results from over 1,300 police executives reveal that law enforcement leaders are responsive to elite peer adoption but much less to public opinion, despite overwhelming public support. Compared to appointed municipal police chiefs, elected sheriffs are less likely to support any civilian oversight. Our findings hold implications for reformers: we find that existing civilian oversight regimes are largely popular, and that it is possible to move police executive opinion towards support for civilian oversight.
Researchers surveyed over 1,300 police chiefs and sheriffs across the U.S. to understand when law enforcement leaders support civilian oversight of their departments. They found that police executives are much more likely to support oversight when other major police departments have already adopted it, but they largely ignore public opinion—even though the vast majority of Americans favor civilian review of police. This suggests that police reform may spread more effectively through professional networks among law enforcement leaders rather than through public pressure alone.
(AI-generated summary, v1, January 2026)
Citations: 8 (as of January 2026)