Police corruption causes and prevention strategies

Criminal Justice

Police Corruption

Corruption is criminal behavior that can engage utilizing one's power, over utilizing one's power, or taking advantage of one's power. The key part is abuse of official power; the achievement can be individual or for the widespread good. Dishonesty is not good because it weakens reliability, the condition of policing being complete or unbroken (Police Deviance & Ethics, 2005).

The Code of Silence among police officers is an accepted regulation not to tell on another colleague's mistakes, misconducts or offenses. If questioned about an event of misbehavior concerning an additional officer throughout the route of an executive inquiry, if subsequent the Code of Silence, it would be normal process to claim lack of knowledge. There have been a couple of studies that have suggested that some officers feel that the code is appropriate in instances of unlawful brutality or bending of the regulations in order to defend associate officers from criminal events, but not to unlawful events with an greedy reason (Ethics and the Police, n.d.).

A lot of police corruption cases show that blue code culture can expand to conspiracies of other levels of crime, greedy or not. The blue code of silence has been referred to as America's Most Successful Stop Snitching Campaign, referring to cases where police have covered up the transgressions of fellow officers and where whistleblowers were hassled, professionally sanctioned, or forced into leaving (Ethics and the Police, n.d.).

Extreme use of force has become the most widespread act of misbehavior protected by the code of silence. The reason extreme use of force regularly prompts the code is due to the fact that officers have often experienced the same thing that caused another officer to lose their temper and thus they feel sympathy or empathy towards the other person. Effectively getting rid of the code necessitates starting with those in charge. When an officer witnesses that his superior or anyone in a place of authority disregards misconduct that officer will be more probable to stand for it (Ethics and the Police, n.d.).

Getting rid of the blue code of silence may appear unattainable. But there are some that think that it can done, according the National Institute of Ethics, a nonprofit association that carries out training to battle employee misbehavior and improve honesty. This association recently released a national study that not only examined the blue code, but makes sensible recommendations on how to get rid of it. The key is to support officers to have devotion to values, and not to each other (Ethics and the Police, n.d.).

It could be argued that it may be possible to find a group of officers that you could convince that being loyal to a set of principals would be better than being loyal to fellow officers, but I doubt that it would be very many. The term human bonding refers to the procedure or configuration of a close individual relationship, particularly throughout recurrent or steady connection (Human bonding, 2010).

Just like in all businesses, the job related principles of law enforcement agencies are given to new police officers by means of the training procedure, the prospect of employee factions, and from connections with veteran officers. New officers learn organizational principles as they are socialized into the police traditions. Ultimately, new officers display acceptance of these principles by way of their dealings in the neighborhoods that they serve. The knowledge of work-related principles is an important issue in formative efficiency of officers, the height of job fulfillment, the value of police and community relations, and the triumphant achievement of organizational socialization (Engelson, 1998).

Breaking the code of silence amongst officers in order to investigate corruption correctly would require infiltrating the organizational culture that has been established within police forces around the world, and I'm not sure that this would be so easy to do. Being part of the group is something that is part of the culture and ingrained in officers from the beginning. In part this is due to the essence of the job and in another part is just a faction of human bonding. The culture of being a police officer is filled with the idea that all officers must rely upon their colleagues for protection and support. This comradely must exist among this group in order for the function of their job to happen. It is when this tight net attitude goes too far then corruption occurs and things get overlooked.

Breaking the code of silence would be a good thing because corrupt behavior could be uncovered and dealt with in an appropriate manner, but disrupting this culture that has existed forever would have harmful effects as well. Officers would have to go against the culture in which they have been indoctrinated from the beginning and well as to go against the natural process of human bonding. Officers know that they rely tremendously on their fellow officers and that the closer the bond that they have with these other people the safer that they feel.