Police Misconduct and Corruption

Police Misconduct and Corruption Student: Professor: Course title: Date: Police Misconduct and Corruption Write an essay describing what police organizations can do to prevent and deter police misconduct. Also, discuss what some of the obstacles to conducting empirical research on police corruption and misconduct are. Please provide at least 6 sources. The essay should be approximately 8-10 pages long (2000 words), double-spaced, using a 12-point font and APA format. Be sure to cite your sources and include a bibliography page. Police misconduct involves the inappropriate actions that police officers take as they conduct their official duties. In most instances, police misconduct and corruption leads to discrimination and miscarriage of justice (Garland, 2001). However, various civilian, law enforcement and government agencies are making significant efforts towards the control of police misconduct and corruption. This paper discusses police misconduct and corruption, and describes the measures that police organizations can undertake in order to prevent and deter such inappropriate actions. The paper also discusses some of the obstacles encountered when conducting empirical research on police misconduct and corruption. Prenzler (2009) stated that in the United States, police misconduct refers to the violation of federal and state laws, or the violation of a person’s constitutional rights by law enforcement officers. Prenzler added that typical forms of police misconduct include coercing confession, abusing women sexually, discriminatory arrest, deadly force or excessive use of force, selective enforcement of the law, and verbal or physical harassment (2009). On the other hand, police corruption occurs when a police officer commits crimes, and abuses police authority for his or her personal gain. Police corruption may involve material benefit or profit gained illegally as a result of the police officer’s authority, for instance extortion, redirecting contraband into the police officer’s account, falsifying police reports and selling drugs. Other corrupt practices by the police include planting drugs to frame innocent citizens, fencing or receiving stolen goods and bribery. Additionally, police misconduct also involves the patterns of police misconduct within a particular special unit or police department, specifically where crimes are repeated with the agreement of superiors or by the officers failing to correct them (Brogden & Nijhar, 2005). What police organizations can do to prevent and deter police misconduct In order to understand how police misconduct and corruption can be prevented and deterred, it is necessary to first understand the causes of these inappropriate behaviors. According to Brogden and Nijhar (2005), police corruption is caused by several factors, chief among them include lack of ethical code of conduct, lack of integrity on the job, the nature of police culture which is characterized by high degrees of internal secrecy and solidarity, and generally poor character of the officials. Other contributing factors are the opportunities of corrupt activities presented by the task and political environments, police officers are poorly paid in relation to their superiors, low public visibility since what they do is rarely witnessed by the public, and the extent and nature of the efforts put in place to controlling corruption. Moreover, low managerial visibility also contributes to police corruption since the actions of the officers often have low visibility as far the line management is concerned. The association with lawbreakers and contact with temptation is also a contributing factor. Lawbreakers, especially those with access to substantial financial resources may tempt the police officers to engage in corrupt activities such as bribery (Punch, 2009). There are different policing areas and some are more prone to corruption than others. To successfully prevent and deter situations of police misconduct, police organizations should always consider an officer’s past record of misconduct and corruption when making promotion decisions. The police organizations should also put in place strict rules that would put a police officer’s job on the line if he or she engages in misconduct or fails to report any misconduct (Palmiotto, 2001). Police organizations can also prevent and deter police misconduct and corruption through effective recruitment practices to ensure only officers with good characters are hired. Police organizations need to set higher standards with regard to recruitment and screening. Most importantly, there has to be full screening of the backgrounds of all prospective candidates, and those with higher education and desirable character be given first preference. Punch (2009) stated that Ethics, values and integrity should be emphasized by police organizations during education and training of the recruits, where all dimensions of misconduct and corruption are fully explored with specific examples included. A code of ethics will help to bring about self-respect among individual police officers, and this will have a positive impact on preventing police misconduct and corruption. Additionally, police organizations need to inculcate a sense of responsibility for police integrity especially among police managers, commanders and supervisors who will be held accountable for tackling corruption in their commands. By ensuring positive leadership and zero tolerance to corruption from the high officials, the police organization will significantly help in combating police corruption and misconduct (Walker, 2005). In addition, police organizations need to develop anti-corruption policies that include rules and regulations to help in corruption control. These policies would codify the behavioral standards expected of all the law enforcement officers, and state the general parameters of the police organization’s response to them (Punch, 2009). Apart from the policies, the police organizations should also develop and adopt an ethical code that would help in maintaining moral decency among the police officers. The supervisory officers and police managers should be given the responsibility of promoting ethical conduct whenever possible. The police organization should reward officers with ethical behaviors and practices, and punish the corrupt and unethical officers, and this will help to prevent and deter police corruption and misconduct (Prenzler, 2009). Moreover, police organizations should also develop and adopt internal control measures that will prevent and deter police misconduct and corruption (Palmiotto, 2001). Preventative control measures would help to prevent police officers from engaging in corrupt activities. An example of preventative measures is tight supervision. Palmiotto reported that majority of law enforcement officers who get into misconduct and corrupt practices begin with minor violations of rules and regulations, and this evolves over time into much serious misconduct and corruption behaviors. Tightening control by increasing the number of rules and paperwork will help to reduce incidence of corruption (2001). Supervisory presence at the scenes of arrest should also be adopted for corruption-prone patrol tasks, for instance installing tachograph...