Research Paper On Police Corruption

According to the textbook, Neal Trautman’s corruption continuum helps clarify the unscrupulous activities of cops. The corruption continuum includes four levels on how organizations can become corrupt. The principal level is as per the following: usage of approaches that guarantee that officers know the moral decides that they need to take after. On the off chance that the manager neglects to do this, then officers will trust that they can be degenerate and no will make a move to fix it. The following level is the procedure that includes police chiefs not doing anything when they know of exploitative acts are being dedicated by officers or when they attempt to cover for those officers who take part in defilement. The third level includes officers

Why do officers become corrupt and more importantly, why do officers who are good keep silent when others are corrupt. The first is that police are not longer trusted by the public. This is increasingly so when looking at the riots that have been forming in Ferguson, Detroit, and New York following use of force in incidents across the nation. Officers are ostracized by the public and looked at as a malevolent force. With this distrust of the public officers band together in order to protect themselves, and keeping themselves separate. This is difficult to do when the public asks for transparency and communication from the police departments, but still shun officers. Civil rights also play a large role in why officers keep things from others. When working with people there are things that officers do that can be seen as a violation of civil rights that officers do when they think that they are acting in the right interest. This also proves a hurdle when looking at justice. Many criminal use the defense of violation of civil rights as a defense instead of pleading that they did not commit a crime. In order to get justice some officers keep these violations secret in order to make sure criminals pay for their crimes. This cognitive dissonance that breaking laws in order to get justice against people who break laws balances out is a major issue that is faced in the law enforcement

From my own personal perspective, I must agree that this phenomenon is real. Police discretion is one of the biggest aspects of the career discussed with those joining the force. The possibility of police corruption is far greater in the field work as opposed to areas where they do more office work or investigation. As discussed by Rich Martin, a New Jersey police officer and criminal justice professor at West Chester University, police corruption can start at low levels such as accepting coffee from convenience stores, subconsciously providing more police presence in return (Martin 2011). An article on police corruption and misconduct, mentions three areas in which police corruption fall: procedural, criminal, and unconstitutional (civil rights violations) (Blanks 2015). Procedural are actions that solely violate regulations

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%

With the mentality that they need to do anything necessary and the community thinking the same thing because they feel that this is an officer job, it could push them to behave unethical. Perez and Moore (2013) points out that police officers are face with situations where the people in the community is telling them every day to either get the gangs or guns out their neighborhood and keep the drugs out and away from the kids and do they don’t care about the cost that this demand could have on others. “Unlike any other form of misconduct, noble cause corruption is often accompanied by a significant amount of community support (Perez & Moore, 2013, p. 195). At the end of the day everybody rights is important whether they are or not a criminal

As someone that worked in corrections for 16-years, I have seen corruption events at both the state level and at the local county level in correctional settings. I there are two common forms of corruptions that I have seen correctional officers walked out and arrested for having sexual relations with offenders or bringing in contraband to offenders. These unethical actions by correctional staff are ones that break the trust with not only the offenders and staff but also the community that the staff has sworn by oath to serve and protect. We also see that an element of corruption and unethical actions have and do take place in the criminal justice area of police officers at the city, county, and state levels across the country (Andonova, 2017). When we as members of the American society see these corruptions in the law enforcement agencies, it is not only a break in the trust that we give them but also most times a violation of state and federal laws. As a community, we must expect that those that work in law enforcement are going to make mistakes, we know that no one is perfect. But when we see that criminal statutes have been broken by a member of the law enforcement community we must ask ourselves just where the line between mistake and corruption is drawn, and the ethical understanding between the two (Andonova, 2017). The connection between misconduct in corrections and in policing leave a lot of questions to be answered. Such as, are all law enforcement officers

Although police officers take an oath to protect and serve citizens in our society. we have some officers that our corrupt and willing do anything just to protect themselves from being exposed from their unethical behavior. In 1994 three officers from New Orleans police department committed an unspeakable crime murder for hire and a violent drug gang. The killing of Kim grove was thirty-two years old and was gunned down by police officer that were there to protect her instead they killed her.

Police corruption is one of the ethical issues affecting law enforcement officers. Corruption is defined as “impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle; inducement to do wrong by improper or unlawful means” (Merriam Webster Online, 2009). While the most recognizable form of corruption involves officers taking money for favors (bribery), the actions that are considered corruption include filing false police reports, harassment of any person due to sex, race, creed, religion, national origin or sexual orientation, and failure to protect the rights of citizens. Corruption exists in all levels of law enforcement.

Police corruption and misconduct come apparent in many different forms. A basic definition for police corruption is, when an officer gets involved in offenses where the officer uses his or her position, by act or omission, to obtain improper financial benefit. The main reason for such corruption is typically for personal gain, such as bribery. Police abuse of authority occurs in three different general areas such as physical abuse, psychological abuse, and legal abuse. Physical abuse is such abuse where one uses excessive force or physical harassment. The psychological abuse occurs through disrespect, harassment, ridicule, excessive stops, or intimidation. Finally, legal abuse is abuse that occurs during unlawful search and seizure

Police corruption contributes to the misuse of police powers because it involves the use of favoritism, bribery, shakedown, and perjury. Police corruption can be caused from discretion, low managerial visibility, low public visibility, and politics. Police officers are given a wide range of discretion on how to handle situations and that often leads to the abuse of power. Also, managers are not always watching over the officer’s shoulder to ensure that the right thing is being done, and the public does not often see the actions of the police. Which means they can get away with a lot of wrongful actions. Politics can create corruption in policing because politics can affect hiring standards, promotions, discipline, and adequate budget. There have been instances where a political leader would tell management who they want to be promoted. That is wrong because promotions should be dependent on your work ability, not because of political influence. There is also external corruption that will convince the officer to engage in payoffs and gratuities. For example: drug dealers would give police officers a percentage of their profit so that they can continue to sell and not go to jail. (Locke, 1996)

Police officers may or may not actively support noble-cause corruption. Sometimes when officers become aware of corrupt or illegal forms of misconduct, they are inclined to “turn a blind eye or look the other way.” It puts their fellow officers in a very difficult position, most officers tend to think that if they turn away and ignore it and do not acknowledge what is going on that they are not part of the misconduct or illegal activity. Most

that they should not have to deal with is when a situation comes up with one of their

What they do or fail to do can affect seriously the span of the damage to life, property, and community spirit. Police officers are required to take an oath when they first join their department. The police oath is a code of ethics. The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics establishes the basic responsibility of a police officer is and I quote: “As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality and justice. I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession…law enforcement.” These are the expectations of the citizens, and when they are abused it threatens the faith of all. The most recent case raising unethical questions may be the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, an unarmed black male shot down by police officers. Another reason might be the rise in reports of suspicious deaths of inmates in custody making headlines across the country. These type of situations bring up difficult questions regarding the limits of police authority, are there some inequalities in the way that law enforcement officers treat certain racial, socioeconomic, or cultural groups? Are the factors, such as whether a citizen is ethnic or white, poor or Middle class, making a difference in the type of treatment one is likely to receive from the

In present time, part of our society is dependent on the law enforcement, which are supposed to keep our community and environment safe and out of trouble. Police officers are part of a branch in law enforcement that helps contribute in the enforcement of certain restrictions and rules to the society in transforming and keeping it a healthy environment. Law officials have been in existence for the majority of the time, but have now been bribed into letting particular situations slide by. It has converted into controversial issue and common situation, where now it is possible to be seen anywhere. What ever happened to those police officers that followed the rules that they help enforce? Police corruption has been a persistent problem

When we think of the police, we normally think of the brave men and women out on the street, enforcing the law, catching criminals, helping out the public in cases of emergency and making us feel safe in general. Most of the Police in most of the world is like that which is a good thing, However in the United States of America the police here are a bit more ruthless. Most of the police officers are very nice people and they really do want to help out in their community, but unfortunately there are some bad and corrupt cops in the system that will break the law and do some bad things. In the Modern world most bad cops are seen as racist and trigger happy. They don’t kill for fun of course but whenever they feel threatened they are trained to feel as though they need to take down their target since they are taught to make sure they don’t do something that will end up killing them. While nobody is at fault with these cases it is unfortunate that it does happen. Thankfully most of those cops are not as bad as the actual corrupted ones where they do business with drug lords and take their money just so that the criminals don’t get ratted out and so that they can continue their business. While there are some organizations that are corrupted the people in America do have power and a decent morality to do something about it. There are many organizations and cases that happened in the supreme court that has changed how the police behave and act when they are out on the