Police Corruption: The Rampart Scandal

David Leon Riley was pulled over by a police officer for a driving a vehicle with expired license tags. The police officer who initially stopped Riley discovered that his driver’s license had also been suspended. Following department procedures, the police officer then continued to impound his vehicle. Before the car was impounded, the police officers are required to do an inventory of all of the components of the vehicle to prevent being liable for any missing items after the car is recovered, as well as, to discover any illegal or dangerous items. During the vehicle search, officers found two handguns under the hood of Riley’s vehicle and then proceeded to arrest Riley for the possession of firearms. When the arresting officer conducted a person’s search of Riley, it was found that Riley had a cell phone in his pocket. The cell phone was taken by police and taken back to the station where an analyst discovered data on Riley’s cell phone that was ultimately used to tie Riley to a drive-by shooting that had occurred a few weeks earlier. Based on the pictures and video recovered by the detective analyst specializing in gangs, and ballistics tests conducted on the two hand guns found in Riley’s vehicle, the state of California charged Riley in connection with the shooting. The arresting officer accessed data stored on Riley’s cell phone and noticed a repeated term associated with a street gang.

On May 16th, 2010 Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a seven-year old Black girl from the east side of Detroit, Michigan was fast asleep at her grandmother’s home when Detroit Police Department’s Special Response Team mistakenly entered the residence during a midnight raid. Officer Joseph Weekley discharged a bullet that entered Stanley Jones’ head leaving her body lifeless. Initially, Weekley was charged in connection with Stanley Jones’ death but prosecutors cleared him in 2015, ensuring he would face no repercussions for his negligence that resulted in the premature death of Aiyana Stanley Jones.

In 2009, news broke announcing the indictment of five Camden, New Jersey Drug Task Force police officers that operated in South Camden, New Jersey’s deteriorated neighborhoods. Specifically, the officers were alleged to have stolen money and drugs from dealers and used the funds and drugs to pay informants and plant evidence to stiffen charges against suspects. Moreover, these officers falsified police reports, paid for false witness testimony and used some of the stolen cash for personal use. South Camden, NJ has been struggling with criminal activity for years. Consequently, hardworking citizens and police officers entangled in the community have failed to rid the drug problem that has evolved and produced other nondrug-related crime. Community policing has been in effect for several years in this rundown city and police continue to struggle with disappointment. Of the five officers indicted three pled guilty, one was convicted, and the fifth acquitted of all charges (Newall, 2010).

Throughout the film, systemic issues within the Newark Police Department (NPD) were examined. In the wake of the DOJ's investigation of the NPD, the discovery of a high rate of 300 shootings and 105 murders in comparison to big cities like New York is nine times higher. The gang unit of the Newark police department, led by Sergeant Joe Consentino, is composed of Black and Latino officers as well as most victims and perpetrators. Engage in aggressive pursuit of drugs and guns so that they can be cleared off the streets, often using questionable methods to accomplish this goal. The consumption of unlawful stops and arrests, and extreme retaliation against individuals who exercise their 1st Amendment rights.

Los Angeles witnessed a high amount of drug incidents and violence, which arose from the increasing drug problem. Unfortunately as the same time the nation witnessed a rise in the drug problem, it also saw a rise in police brutality. Throughout Los Angles and America there were many cases of police beatings, but there wasn’t any case that received as much attention and media coverage as the Rodney King incident. On the night of the Rodney King beating, “amateur video camera enthusiast, George Holliday, shot footage of LAPD officers beating a twenty-five year old African-American man following a traffic stop” (Alpert p.131). The question raised is why did something like this incident happen? In order to answer the question, a review of the police department is necessary. At the time of the Rodney King beating Daryl Gates had been the police chief of Los Angles for thirteen years. Chief Gates had power over the departments’ policies and personnel, and “his position was well insulated by unique civil service protections” (Alpert p.134). Chief Gates was recognized as someone who was professional and innovative on new ideas to enforce the law. He adopted militaristic technology as equipment to use in the streets. One example of the new technology was the motorized police battering rams, which were essentially tanks

With recent negative media coverage concerning police officers, police corruption has become a major topic. Police officers seem to be making more questionable and unethical decisions according to the media. With these questionable actions, the idea that police officers are corrupt has been a steadily growing opinion. I will be focusing this literature review on the history of police corruption, mostly in major cities/countries; the nature of police corruption; the ethics involved in law enforcement; causes for police corruption and finally possible solutions to police corruption.

Although many people had experienced the brutal actions of the LAPD officer, the Rampart Scandal opened the eyes of many people who were not

The correctional officer chose to become whistle Blowers after the death of inmate Preston Tate, and after the other officer said that he was the attacker in this situation. However, the correctional officers main allegations was of “brutality that the correctional officer were exploiting racial tensions to stage fights between inmates for entertainment of the prison guards (Holding, 2009)”. The prison tape shows all of this illegal behavior going on, and the two whistle blower watch other officer cohorts their coworkers in how to alter their reports to make it justifiable for the shooting that took place in the recreation yards.

Shots Fired is a 10-hour event series that portrays the precarious aftermath of two alleged racially charged shootings in a Southern town in North Carolina. The main protagonists of the series are a female African American, who is the prime investigator and an African American male, who serves as the special prosecutor. The episode begins with an African American sheriff’s deputy shooting and killing an unarmed White college student. In society, we are typically used these roles being reversed. That idea is evident as the small Southern town struggles to grip with the tragedy as the investigation starts. However, as the racial divide in the community is still very prevalent, a neglected murder of an African American teen by a white police officers

Michael Dowd worked for the New York City Police Department for precinct 75 for ten years and five months. Throughout his career, he committed extortion, narcotics trafficking, protection of drug operations, engaging in personal drug use, committed thefts and admitted to the courts that he had committed hundreds of crimes. At the beginning of it all, East New York in the late 80s was extremely poor and there were about 3,500 murders a year and a lot of crime. The 75 was known to be the deadliest precinct in the country, leading the city in homicides and shootings; the calls did not stop (Russel, 2015).

Corruption within the New York Police Department is a quickly growing phenomenon; to an extent, this is largely due to the cop culture that encourages silence and draws the line at honesty. The good, honest officers are afraid to speak up against co-workers and in the process become corrupt themselves. When police departments were first established in the mid-nineteenth century, corruption quickly followed suit. It began with minor acts of misconduct and today deals with serious criminal activities. Scholars have noted that there is a strong correlation between the officers taking part in corrupt acts and officers wanting to fit in with the culture. In this paper, I argue that the deeper an officer in the New York police department gets into the police culture, the more likely it is that they become involved in narcotic corruption

Police corruption can also be explained by the lack of protection and security police feel they have. They also feel like they are being disrespected by individuals in society, which is why they rely on the subculture for protection and support (Skolnick, 1966). The police subculture has created a lot of secrecy within the organization, which contributes to police misconduct. Police officers will often ignore another police officer’s corrupt actions in order to maintain a good reputation within the subculture (Tator & Henry, 2006). For example, 84% of police officers have directly witnessed another officer using more force than necessary out on the streets (US Department of Justice, 2017). However, instead of reporting the acts of others, 52%

In 1994 officer Len Davis who was thirty years’ old and was accused of conspiring with Paul hardy 27 and Damon causey 24 in the murder of Kim grove that was 32 years old. Kim groves was gunned down on Alabo street a block from her home. According to authority’s Kim grove had made a complaint to the department’s

Ethical conflicts presented where correction officers purposely, exploiting racial tension by arranging physically assaultive behavior, of rival gang members which was used for sport, entertainment and shooting practice for the correction officers (Dryburg, 2009).

The police officer stands at the top of the criminal justice system in a nation where crime rates are high and where the demands for illegal goods and services are widespread. These conditions create a situation in which the police officer is confronted with opportunity to accept a large number of favors or grants. Police corruption occurs in many forms and observers of police behavior agree that it falls into nine specific areas. Drug related police corruption differs from other types of police corruption. In addition to protecting criminals or ignoring their activities, officers involved in drug related corruption were more likely to be involved in stealing drugs and/or money from drug dealers,