In Canada, for the last 18 months, a civilian commission has probed the inner workings of the troubled armed forces.

Chief Hegerty said she expected the dismissals to be appealed to the civilian commission that oversees the department.

Chief Bratton told the civilian commission overseeing the department that command failures "dominoed all the way down" to the field.

However, by 1947, a struggle was already breaking out within the Truman administration over who would control nuclear power, a civilian commission or the military.

So in the end, President Truman made the decision to turn control of the nation's nuclear program over to a civilian commission.

The Brigade was designed to assist the civilian commission to coax people to surrender weapons, possibly in return for money payments.

Two years later, he opposed the province's plans to create independent civilian commissions that would investigate charges of police misconduct.

Under the peace agreement, a civilian commission is to decide who owns vacant houses.

And last month Los Angeles residents voted to give the Council authority to overturn decisions made by various civilian commissions.

A few months ago a city attorney determined, for the first time, that the civilian commission, and not the police chief, is the head of the department.