Internal Governance of Police Stops: An Unresolvable Challenge?

Internal governance involves the internal accountability of the police. Governance is associated with the promotion of values such as transparency, responsiveness and the maintenance of professional, ethical and human rights standards in policing. In relation to police stops, it includes management issues such as policy formation and implementation; deployment choices; procedures and methods aimed at ensuring individual police officers act professionally and efficiently in the discharge of their duties in respect of police stops. This can be particularly challenging as decision-making around the use of such powers involves a high degree of discretion on behalf of the police officer. This chapter considers approaches to internal oversight of police stops.