Methodology

What we track

• Body name, founding year, governing statute
• Statutory powers: subpoena, compelled testimony, public-reports requirement, records access
• Composition: appointment method, term length, removal standard
• Two computed scores: LE capability (0–40) and Independence (0–100)

Single source of truth

All scoring is computed at law.ungovr.org/oversight/methodology. This site reads the scores; it does not recompute them. Statute text and citations live in the upstream oversight-laws dataset.

Reports

Per-report extraction (findings, recommendations, response status) reuses the pipeline built for civilgrandjury.org. Report ingestion is rolling out; expect the corpus to grow over coming months.

Data freshness

The site rebuilds nightly. Last build: 2026-05-13 12:24 UTC.

State coverage

Coverage expands one state at a time. A state is added once at least one qualifying county-level civilian oversight body is identified and seeded. States without any qualifying bodies (such as Texas, where no Texas county has yet established an independent civilian body with operational scope over its sheriff) are documented as "no-coverage" states with their structural context, rather than omitted entirely. State-level officer- certification boards and jail-standards commissions are tracked separately on law.ungovr.org/oversight/law-enforcement.

Tone

sheriffoversight.org is a neutral reference work. We describe what statutes do and what bodies exist; we do not advocate for or against any particular arrangement. Where a normative claim is needed, it is sourced and attributed.

Report a missing body

If you know of an oversight body not listed here, tell us.