The COAD is a regularly updated and publicly available database of civilian oversight agencies and their various characteristics. Use the options below to filter through the database and learn more about an individual oversight agency.
Oversight Functions
Primary oversight model:
Additional oversight functions (Select all that apply):
Oversight of (Select all that apply):
Oversees correctional facilities:
Publishes:
Annual reports
Special reports
Complaint information or statistics
Analyses of department practices
Local Structure
Population of jurisdiction:
Total sworn officers overseen:
Annual Budget:
Budget of overseen department(s):
Enabling legislation:
Reports to:
Year created:
Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigation:
Has entered a consent decree:
Agency evaluated by external stakeholder:
Boards/Commissions
Has volunteer board/commission:
Appointed by:
Board trained on department policy & procedure:
Receives stipends:
Current law enforcement officer permitted to serve:
Former law enforcement permitted to serve:
Staffing
Total staff:
Total staff in position:
Director
Deputy/Assistant Director
Attorney (acting as agency counsel)
Investigators
Auditors
Monitors
Community Outreach
Analysts
Database/IT Managers
Office Manager
Administrative Assistant
Legal counsel:
Permitted to employ current or former sworn law enforcement:
Scope of Authority
Anonymous complaints accepted:
Affidavit/notarized statement required to submit complaint:
Has mediation program:
On-scene at critical incidents:
Recommends:
New or revised departmental policies/procedures
Discipline
Investigative findings
Training or retraining
Overseen department must respond to recommendations:
Enacts:
New or revised departmental policies/procedures
Discipline
Training or retraining
Information Access
Departmental Records:
Early-worning system records
Computer-aided dispatch records
Personnel records
Body-worn/in-car video
Stop, search, and arrest records
Use of force reports
All electronic databases including but not limited to the items listed above
Internal Affairs Records:
Copies of open IA files and investigations
Copies of closed IA files and investigations
Front-end access to IA database
Back-end access to IA database
Subpoena authority:
Access to department records secured by:
The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) is a non-profit organization that brings together individuals and agencies working to establish or improve oversight of police officers in the United States. NACOLE welcomes people and organizations committed to fair and professional law enforcement that is responsive to community needs. To learn more about our organization, click here.
The Civilian Oversight Agency Database (COAD) is a web application and publicly available dataset developed to help oversight practitioners, community members, law enforcement, and government officials explore and understand the highly variegated field of civilian oversight of law enforcement. This application and its accompanying data were created as part of cooperative agreement number 2016-CK-WX-K017 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. Starting in 2017, NACOLE launched an ongoing survey to civilian oversight agencies throughout the United States in an effort to collect up-to-date information regarding each agency's organizational structure, authority, resources, and other characteristics.
The COAD survey is ongoing, and new agencies may submit their responses by clicking the “Submit” button at the top of this webpage at any time. Oversight agencies that have already completed their survey are periodically reminded to ensure that their responses are up-to-date, and may modify their survey responses as necessary.
For those agencies wishing to take the survey, please click here. To see the full text of the survey in PDF format, click here. If you work for an oversight agency that has already responded and would like to update your information, please send an email to info@nacole.org for a custom link allowing you to modify your responses. In total, the COAD survey asks 36 questions resulting in 63 variables relating to the organizational structure, resources, and authority of civilian oversight agencies. The data has been structured in a way that allows for use in this web app interface as well as in data and statistical analysis programs such as Microsoft Excel, R, and SPSS.
The data is self-reported by participating oversight agencies. While NACOLE has taken several measures to ensure the accuracy and quality of the data, we cannot guarantee that each individual datapoint reflects the most up-to-date information for each oversight agency. Each survey response includes a date of when their entry was submitted or last updated.
The COAD information has been grouped into categories relating to each agency's functions, structure resources, authority, and access to department records. Users can explore the data by clicking through the map, using the search bar, or applying one or more filters to the entire dataset. Tooltips containing the original survey text and useful contextual information for each filter can be viewed by clicking the next to the filter. The map and list of agencies will automatically update to reflect your filtering criteria. Filters can be removed by clicking the "X" next to each filter, or completely by clicking the "Reset Filters" button to remove all filters.
The most up-to-date version of the COAD data is available for oversight practitioners, researchers, government officials, and members of the public interested in performing their own analyses of the data. A codebook with variable definitions and a verbatim copy of the survey is available here to help end users better understand the dataset.
Users of the data should be aware that:
- The COAD survey is issued on an ongoing basis and responses for individual agencies may span different years.
- Information is self-reported by each oversight agency and is current as of the date specified in the “date” column. Changes to an agency’s information that have occurred after an agency has submitted their survey response may not be reflected. This is most likely to apply to budget, staffing, and population information. Users are encouraged to contact the oversight agency to update these figures if necessary
- NACOLE has reviewed each oversight agency’s responses for potential errors and has made appropriate corrections, but cannot guarantee the accuracy of all data points given the fluid nature of the survey.
When requesting the COAD data, you agree to:
- Analyze and interpret the data with honesty, integrity, and sound data analysis methodologies;
- Appropriately cite NACOLE when using the data for any reason. To learn more about citing data, please see the International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology’s Quick Guide to Data Citation
- The following citations are recommended for those using The Chicago Manual of Style:
- Footnote: National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, Civilian Oversight Agency Database (May 2020), distributed by National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, http://directory.nacole.org.
- Bibliographic entry: National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. Civilian Oversight Agency Database. May 2020. Distributed by National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. http://directory.nacole.org