Police Corruption and Responses
Chapter 7civilian review/complaint model
The use of an outside agency or board that includes citizens and monitors and/or investigates misconduct complaints against police.graft
Rotten Apple Argument
The proposition that the officer alone is deviant and that it was simply a mistake to hire him or her.
The use of an outside agency or board that includes citizens and monitors and/or investigates misconduct complaints against police.graft
Rotten Apple Argument
The proposition that the officer alone is deviant and that it was simply a mistake to hire him or her.
Types of Corruption
Reducing Police Corruption
o Provide ethical leadership
o Provide a written code of ethics
o Provide a whistleblowing procedure that ensures fair treatment of all parties
o Provide training n law enforcement ethics
§ “Rotten Apple” responses – include improving screening (e.g., background checks, drug tests, etc.), education and training, integrity testing (which occurs when a police officer is placed in a position where he or she might be tempted to break a rule or a law and monitored to see what he or she will do), and early warning or audit systems.
§ “Rotten Barrel” responses – include internal affairs model (a review procedure in which police investigators receive and investigate complaints and resolve the investigations internally), civilian review/complaint boards model (the use of an outside agency or board that includes citizens and monitors and/or investigates misconduct complaints against police), changing the culture, and ethical leadership.
o Two cases studies, one in New York and another one in Los Angeles, illustrate the problem when administrators attempt to cover up wrongdoing by individual officers. In both cases, the investigator who attempted to identify and expose corruption was met with resistance from the administration.
- Corruption has been described as “acting on opportunities, created by virtue of one’s authority, for personal gain at the expense of the public one is authorized to serve”.
- 1973 - the Knapp Commission (grass eaters and meat eaters).
- Barker and Carter’s typology includes:
- Physical abuse – excessive force, physical harassment.
- Psychological abuse – disrespect, harassment, ridicule, excessive stops, intimidation.
- Legal abuse – unlawful searches or seizures, manufacturing evidence, etc.
- It is an insult to law enforcement officers to equate crime and ethical transgressions.
- Fyfe and Kane discuss police crime, police corruption, and abuse of power.
- Gratuities are items of value received by an individual because of his or her role or position, rather than because of a personal relationship with the giver.
- Prenzler showed that two-thirds of respondents agreed it was acceptable for police to take coffee; 76 percent were opposed to regular free coffee, cold drinks, or discounted meals when on duty.
- Kania believes that gratuities are the building blocks of positive social relationships between our police and the public (problem when the intent of the giver is to give in exchange for some future service).
- The only problem, according to Kania, is when either or both the giver and taker have impure intent.
- Another issue that Kania alludes to but doesn’t clearly articulate is that a pattern of gratuities changes what would have been a formal relationship into a personal, informal one.
- Opposing arguments include:
- Police are professionals and professionals don’t take gratuities.
- Gratuities are incipient corruptors because people expect different treatment.
- Gratuities are an abuse of authority and create a sense of entitlement.
- Gratuities add up to substantial amounts of money and can comprise as high as 30 percent of an officer’s income (unjust enrichment).
- Gratuities can be the beginning of more serious forms of corruption (slippery slope).
- It is contrary to democratic ideals since it is a type of fee-for-service of public functions.
- It creates a public perception that police are corrupt.
- Can lead to unequal protection and treatment
- Kania’s counter-arguments include
- Other professionals accept gratuities.
- There is nothing wrong with more frequent users of police services “paying” extra.
- “No gratuity” rules are tools of playing “gotcha” that erode morale.
- That educators and academics tend to distort the seriousness of gratuities.
- Professional courtesy – the practice of not ticketing an officer who is stopped for speeding or for other driving violations.
- Justifications for not ticketing other officers are diverse and creative. One troubling aspect of professional courtesy for traffic offenses is that the practice has a tendency to bleed over into other forms of misconduct.
- On-Duty Use of Drugs and Alcohol:
- Research found that up to 20 percent of officers in one city used marijuana and other drugs while on duty (figure too high?).
- 8 percent of employees reported drug use and, only 3 percent of all workers in a “protective services” category reported drug use.
- Elements of police work (especially undercover work) that lead to drug use include
- The exposure to a criminal element.
- Relative freedom from supervision.
- The uncontrolled availability of contraband.
- Police officers, as many other types of employees, have been subject to drug testing.
- Officers have some due process rights, however, and they must be notified of the policies and procedures involved in the agency’s drug testing, have access to the findings, and have some sort of appeal process before sanctions are taken.
- Fyfe and Kane: most common reason for termination among NYPD was failed drug test.
- About 8 percent of those in “protective services” occupations (which would include police officers) reported heavy alcohol use.
- Barker and Carter (1994) reported that 8 percent of officers reported drinking alcohol on duty.
- Graft refers to any exploitation of one’s role, such as accepting bribes or protection money.
- Examples include taking bribes for changing testimony or “forgetting,” looking the other way when discovering an illegal act, or taking kickbacks from a lawyer or tow truck company for sending them business.
- Officers in the United States rated bribery as the second most serious offense. Only theft from a crime scene was rated as more serious.
- Sexual Misconduct:
- Amnesty International has documented widespread mistreatment of women by police across the world.
- Kraska and Kappeler‘s continuum of sexual invasion (from least to most serious) is as follows:
- viewing a victim’s photos or videos for prurient purposes
- field strip searches
- custodial strip searches
- illegal detentions
- deception to gain sex
- provision of services for sex
- sexual harassment
- sexual contact
- sexual assault
- rape
- Sapp’s inventory of sexual misconduct includes
- Non-sexual contacts that are sexually motivated (non-valid traffic stops).
- Voyeurism (i.e., patrolling lover’s lanes to watch sexual activity).
- Contact with crime victims (excessive call-backs that are not necessary for investigative purposes).
- Contact with offenders (sexual demands or inappropriate frisks).
- Contacts with juvenile offenders (sexual harassment and sexual contact).
- Sexual shakedowns (demanding sex from prostitutes or homeless).
- Citizen-initiated sexual contact (officer is approached by citizen because of their officer status).
- Prostitutes and homeless women are extremely vulnerable populations to sexual extortion by police officers. The power differential makes consent extremely problematic.
- 70 percent of female officers reported being sexually harassed by other police officers
- Criminal Cops:
- “Miami River Rats” in the 1980s
- Chicago - 1996, seven Chicago cops were indicted for conspiracy to commit robbery and extortion for shaking down undercover agents they thought were drug dealers.
- Indianapolis police officers were recently indicted and convicted for a theft ring
- New Orleans police officers in the past have been linked to drugs, robberies, and even murder
- Prince George’s County, Maryland, had just been released from a federal consent decree that it had been under for seven years for civil rights violations, but anew investigation led to evidence that police officers had provided security and assistance to drug dealers
- A trio of Boston police officers was prosecuted and convicted in 2008 of conspiracy and other crimes associated with drug trafficking
- Minnesota – in 2009, a narcotics strike force involving 34 officers from 13 agencies was the target of suspicion
- Missouri, police officer was sentenced to three months in prison after admitting to the theft of cash found in a drug search.
- North Carolina – two officers were indicted for embezzlement, obtaining property by false pretences, breaking and entering, second degree kidnapping, and obstruction of justice
- The “Buddy Boys” in New York in the early 1980s
- Tulsa police officers and an ATF agent have been the subject of an intensive state and federal probe of alleged crimes and misconduct
- A Philadelphia narcotics squad became the subject of an internal investigation and FBI probe when Latino bodega owners complained to city and police department officials about a pattern of raids where officers targeted Latino stores for narcotics raids, turned off the security cameras, and then (allegedly) stole money and goods from the stores
- Explanations of corruption can be described as
- Individual (rotten apple; bad recruiting, moral career).
- Fyfe and Kane looked at gender, age, education, race, military, others.
- Organizational (bad management; noble cause)
- Gilmartin and Harris “Continuum of compromise” discussed why some officers become compromised
- Trautman “Corruption Continuum” discussed how organizational leaders contribute to the unethical actions of their employees
- Societal (public demands and willingness to tolerate extra legal means)
Reducing Police Corruption
- There are several authors who have proposed comprehensive lists of tactics to reduce police misconduct and corruption.
- Metz suggest several ways in which police administrators can encourage ethical conduct among officers:
o Provide ethical leadership
o Provide a written code of ethics
o Provide a whistleblowing procedure that ensures fair treatment of all parties
o Provide training n law enforcement ethics
§ “Rotten Apple” responses – include improving screening (e.g., background checks, drug tests, etc.), education and training, integrity testing (which occurs when a police officer is placed in a position where he or she might be tempted to break a rule or a law and monitored to see what he or she will do), and early warning or audit systems.
§ “Rotten Barrel” responses – include internal affairs model (a review procedure in which police investigators receive and investigate complaints and resolve the investigations internally), civilian review/complaint boards model (the use of an outside agency or board that includes citizens and monitors and/or investigates misconduct complaints against police), changing the culture, and ethical leadership.
o Two cases studies, one in New York and another one in Los Angeles, illustrate the problem when administrators attempt to cover up wrongdoing by individual officers. In both cases, the investigator who attempted to identify and expose corruption was met with resistance from the administration.
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