In his paper, Walker (2014) examines the issues that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is facing in terms of accountability and professional ethics. Walker concludes that CBP fails to catch up with recent developments in the field of municipal policing and is forty years behind on compliance. The data analyzed by the researcher is quite alarming, and he argues that CBP is in dire need of comprehensive solutions.
First, the authorities need to tackle the absence of meaningful policies and procedures that would ensure accountability. As of now, the main problem is the lack of appropriate practices concerning the use of force. Hence, they need to be selected and introduced as soon as possible. While I agree with the proposed solution, I have doubts about its practical implementation. Nowhere in the paper does Walker state what criteria would be fit for adopting new policies. Moreover, it is not clear who exactly will hold CBP accountable and whether standardization of police practice is possible at the state level.
Second, Walker (2014) puts forward the idea that if a local institution such as CBP fails to fulfill its duties, a larger state institution should if not overtake then manage it. Thus, to sum up, his second point, one may say that Walker advocates for centralization. I would like to contradict his argument with some points drawn from a study by Sabel and Simon.
The researchers claim that decentralization might be the answer since when local authorities stay in power, they are more capable of examining the problem in its context and finding a tailored solution (Sabel & Simon, 2016). Furthermore, they can interact closely with the community and answer their needs (Sabel & Simon, 2016). The research question for succeeding studies would be the following: “What practices should be proclaimed standard by the state and how can authorities enforce standardization?”
References
Sabel, C. F., & Simon, W. H. (2016). The duty for responsible administration and the problem of police accountability. Yale Journal on Regulation, 33, 165.
Walker, S. (2014). Changing the culture of the customs and border protection agency: Lessons from recent developments in municipal police accountability in the U. S. University of Nebraska at Omaha.