ABSTRACT
Independent and objective oversight of police organizations in Australia and New Zealand is essential to ensure the accountability and the eectiveness of police activities and safeguards the rights of members of the public against overreaction, use of excessive force, or misconduct committed by individual or collective police ocers. e public’s opinion and trust in the police are at stake when the accountability of the police is questioned to the extent that the situation moves away from the ideal “policing by consent” paradigm in western liberal democracies.
