The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) has responded to recent calls for change to the business-as-usual approach to policing and police accountability by launching its new Police Accountability Project.

Using its broad authority over the Executive Branch, OSC will be an independent and objective check on State and local law enforcement, adding a layer of transparency and accountability, and identifying any gaps in oversight so that they can be remedied.

The Police Accountability Project is working to detect waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in law enforcement agencies. The Project’s mission is to uncover systemic issues in policing that open the State up to civil liability, and therefore significant amounts of taxpayer funds when policing goes wrong. The Project will review and report to the general public on how taxpayer funds are used for policing so taxpayers can understand what public safety services they are actually paying for. And the Project will identify areas where there are wasteful inefficiencies, or where funds may be lacking to fully implement police reform efforts and realize the stated goals of legislation and directives.