Most recently, from September 1985 to January 1986, he was a consultant to the Vera Institute of Justice.

He said the idea came from a study in 1989 by the Vera Institute of Justice, a Manhattan-based criminal-justice research foundation.

Mr. Colgan received patent 5,510,978, which was assigned to the Vera Institute.

The Vera Institute is a nonprofit policy research center based in New York.

A 1989 study by the Vera Institute of Justice found that only 20 percent of complainants sought serious punishment for the officer involved.

The courts have contracted with a nonprofit group, the Vera Institute of Justice, to run a complaint line at courthouses.

Research by the Vera Institute of Justice finds that most complainants aren't interested in seeing officers severely disciplined.

Independent evaluation would be performed by the Vera Institute of Justice.

But several other state legislatures passed laws with varying degrees of flexibility and creativity, the Vera Institute found.

At the bail stage, the Vera Institute has also been active on a number of fronts.