Amnesty report on policing in the Americas

The report makes a series of recommendations to enhance policing across the region central to which is the creation of specialist monitoring systems that are external to and independent of the police. Amnesty states that experiences in the region indicate that such bodies should have six key features:

• Political and operational independence
• Sufficient resources, including available expertise and adequate funding
• Be established by law with a clearly defined mandate, including the power to obtain an obligatory and motivated reaction on findings and recommendations by the concerned authorities (if necessary, with the option for a judicial review). 
• The power to access crucial information
• The power to take proactive action and review patterns of abuses
• Demonstrate high levels of transparency and accountability