Michelle Beyers

Dr. Michelle Beyers is an Associate Teaching Professor at Arizona State University and Director of the Aequitas Institute. Her research explores structural accountability in high-stakes institutional environments. She conducts comparative analyses of cases in Northern Ireland and the United States. Specifically, she studies the post-Patten policing architecture in Northern Ireland and the use of voluntary compliance frameworks in U.S. defense AI governance. Her work examines when formal compliance frameworks create accountability gaps, particularly when legitimacy is threatened.

Dr. Beyers brings over twenty years of applied experience with post-Patten policing architecture and post-Good Friday Agreement devolved government in Northern Ireland. This work took place in a society emerging from three decades of political conflict. She led compliance monitoring and accountability initiatives. In these roles, she evaluated how and when formal oversight achieves genuine accountability. At the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), Dr. Beyers ensured compliance with the Belfast Agreement. Her focus included accountability, covert policing, and emergency powers (Beyers 2011; Beyers & Holder 2012).

Her research at CAJ informed the public record used by the Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland. This record supported the September 2011 inspection into the independence of the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI). The inspection’s findings led to two major outcomes. First, the Police Ombudsman resigned in 2012. Second, a formal OPONI Reforms Package was presented by the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice to the Assembly’s Committee for Justice in June 2013. The package introduced both legislative and administrative changes to the Office’s handling of historic cases and sensitive material.

She also co-authored work on the post-St Andrews national security policing arrangements (Beyers & Holder 2012), which contributed to CAJ’s 2012 report The Policing You Don’t See: Covert Policing and The Accountability Gap. In this report, she and her colleagues recommended a comprehensive independent review of the MI5/PSNI arrangement to the Northern Ireland Office and the Secretary of State. Although the review was not conducted, the government created the role of Independent Reviewer of National Security Arrangements. However, this role came with restricted access, unpublished reports, and only annual compliance findings. This outcome illustrates the legitimization mechanism central to her current research.

Her empirical work produced the analytical framework that underpins her current research across institutional domains. Building on this foundation, she now applies the framework to defense AI governance. She examines how voluntary compliance regimes create accountability gaps and constrain transparency. She is currently researching the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. This framework serves as the primary instrument for operationalizing the Department of Defense’s responsible AI commitments.

Since Fall 2016, Dr. Beyers has taught in the graduate program at Arizona State University, where she teaches social policy. She also serves as Director of the Aequitas Institute. The Institute extends this research across domains where high-stakes consequences and constrained transparency intersect. These domains include defense AI deployment, AI-enabled policing, and autonomous systems governance.