Mediating Citizen Complaints Against Police Officers: Community Viewpoints From Trinidad and Tobago

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/08874034231220680
• Author: Wendell C. Wallace
• Date: 01 February 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034231220680

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2024, Vol. 35(1) 22 –40

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/08874034231220680

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Article

Mediating Citizen Complaints

Against Police Officers:

Community Viewpoints From

Trinidad and Tobago

Wendell C. Wallace1

Abstract

Given the confrontational nature of citizen–police interactions, citizen complaints

against the police are inevitable. In Trinidad and Tobago, citizen complaints are

frequently ventilated via litigation or through a range of police-led and non-police-

led investigations. However, it has been argued that these mechanisms for resolving

citizen complaints against the police are ineffective. With this in mind, there is need

for alternative mechanisms to resolve citizen complaints against police officers, and

mediation has emerged as the leading contender. Despite the proclivity toward

mediation, the phenomenon has attracted sparse scholarship in Trinidad and Tobago.

As a result of this lacuna, this study employs a qualitative approach to measure (a)

citizens preference for mediation or traditional mechanisms of complaint resolution

and (b) citizens willingness to use mediation to resolve complaints against police

officers in Trinidad and Tobago, if mediation becomes available.

Keywords

conflict, alternative dispute resolution, mediation, police, Trinidad and Tobago

The occurrence of conflict in every environment in which humans are present is nor-

mal (Doğan, 2016) and this applies to Trinidad and Tobago. Conflict is omnipresent in

many societies and conflict between citizens and police officers is quite prevalent.

This commonness is premised on the notion that policing is a profession that places it

members in challenging situations, possibly more than other professions (Volpe, 2014)

1The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

Corresponding Author:

Wendell C. Wallace, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Room 7, Behavioural Sciences

Building, Carmody Road, St. Augustine 868, Trinidad and Tobago.

Email: wendell.wallace@sta.uwi.edu

1220680CJPXXX10.1177/08874034231220680Criminal Justice Policy ReviewWallace

research-article2023

Wallace 23

and this leads to conflict as well as the inevitability of citizen complaints against police

officers.

Despite the presence of conflict between community residents and police officers,

conspicuously absent from the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement is the

mediation of citizen complaints against the police (Walker & Archbold, 2000). In

Trinidad and Tobago, mediation is only used within the Family Court Division of the

Judiciary in Trinidad and Tobago, and there are no programs offering mediation of citi-

zen and police officer conflict on the island. Therefore, it appears that while mediation

has become a significant factor in civil and criminal procedures in some jurisdictions

(England and Trinidad and Tobago), it seems insignificant with respect to the resolu-

tion of citizen complaints against police officers for allegations of misconduct

(McGillis, 1997). The earlier pronouncement by Walker and Archbold (2000) regard-

ing the absence of mediation of citizen complaints against the police is applicable to

Trinidad and Tobago as this remedy is conspicuously absent from conflict resolution

frameworks on the island.

In Trinidad and Tobago, citizen complaints against the police have traditionally

been ventilated in open court or via a range of police-led and non-police-led investiga-

tive mechanisms. However, it has been argued that existing mechanisms for resolving

citizen complaints against police officers are inefficient. This has caused police man-

agement on the island to seek out alternative means of resolving these complaints.

Importantly, both police departments and community residents are increasingly turn-

ing their attention to mediation as a way of resolving citizen complaints against the

police (Stephens, 2011), but very little is available by way of current information

about its practice in Trinidad and Tobago.

As with others concepts in the social sciences, there are many definitions for the

term mediation. For example, mediation is defined as a formal program designed to

resolve citizen complaints against the police through face-to-face meetings between

the citizen complainant and the police officer with a neutral third party acting as medi-

ator (Beer & Stief, 1997). According to the Police Assessment Resource Center (2008,

p. 55), “Mediation is a voluntary process designed to resolve disputes through negotia-

tion and constructive communication with the assistance of a trained neutral party

mediator. It is an informal, non-disciplinary and non-adversarial process.” In this

study, mediation is conceptualized using the definition proffered by the Police

Assessment Resource Center (2008). Importantly, this definition was placed on inter-

view guide so that the meaning of mediation was not mysterious to the participants.

With the lacuna of limited empirical data on the phenomenon under inquiry, this

study sought to determine citizen’s willingness to use mediation to resolve complaints

against the police as well as their preference between mediation and traditional mecha-

nisms to resolve citizen complaints against police officers. The research was con-

ducted solely through the lens of community residents in five cities in Trinidad and

Tobago and employed a qualitative approach that was directed toward ways and means

of attaining peace between conflicting parties. In a similar vein to previous scholarship

by Williams (2020), this study considers the long-standing tension between the police

and community members in Trinidad and Tobago.