GovWire

Community scrutiny panels (CSPs) allow members of the community to review individual police interactions with the public.

Observations and feedback from community scrutiny panels can help police forces to learn lessons, improve services and ensure greater accountability. This can support police officers to use their powers more confidently with the backing of the community and also aid public understanding of how and why police powers are used.

As part of its Inclusive Britain commitments, the government has developed a draft community scrutiny framework: national guidance for community scrutiny panels.

The framework draws on established good practice and aims to assist police and crime commissioners and police forces to establish and maintain effective local scrutiny panels and ensure a consistent approach nationally.

This consultation seeks to gather views on the draft community scrutiny framework and provides an opportunity for everyone to have a say in how community scrutiny processes can be improved to help police to tackle crime and serve their communities more effectively.