Mooching: Undermining Police Authority for the Most

Mooching: Undermining Police Authority For the most part, it would be exceedingly difficult to prove that specific acts of mooching and chiseling -- or of these practices in general -- actually undermine the effectiveness for police officers to carry out their duty -- which is primarily regarded as a charge to protect and serve the general well-being of society at large.

Generally speaking, mooching and chiseling can be considered independent acts of clemency on the part of private or of even public businesses, which benefit a few and generally have little effect upon the many who are not beneficiaries of such boons. Favoritism, however, certainly appears to directly undermine the authority of police units, for the simple fact that the use of license tabs or window stickers to avoid traffic citations directly impacts one of the principle components of police officers' jobs.

In order to further elucidate these points, however, it becomes necessary to examine these aforementioned practices individually in order to gain a better understanding of their impact upon the effectiveness of police work. Mooching actually has very little effect upon police work, for the simple fact that its greater impact is upon whatever particular organization or establishment that is disseminating free goods. Although giving out items for free to customers may not necessarily be good for business purposes, it certainly is not against the law.

The only way in which mooching may undermine police effectiveness is if it is police officers who are involved in the mooching, and who are being presented with items for free in order to obtain some form of preferential treatment. In cases such as these, mooching would then definitely undermine police effectiveness, because it would cause officers to possibly become partisan in their carrying out of their responsibilities and in their issuing of justice -- which, ideally, should be done in a manner that is distinctly non-partisan.

The general concept of chiseling is in and of itself largely innocuous. If employees or their family members of movie theaters are given discounted rates or passes to movies, such a practice, again, affects the particular theater or movie viewing establishment significantly more than it does any sort of police. This notion takes on additional ramifications, however, when it is actual members of the police force that are the beneficiaries of chiseling, and are entitled to attend showings and viewings of movies at reduced rates or free of charge.

What is being warped, to a certain extent, is the police members' ability to regard practices and members of the movie theater without some form of preferential treatment. However, it should be noted that the degree to which this occurrence may happen is considerably less than that involving mooching, primarily due to the fact that there is less traffic and potential for criminal activity at a movie theater than at other businesses in which mooching may be involved.

Favoritism certainly undermines police effectiveness in virtually all cases and all aspects, and induces a degree of preferential treatment for those who obtain it (Clarke, 2012). There are no independently owned or publicly operated businesses that are.