Corruption Within The New York Police Department

After the civil war, local politicians rewarded their supporters with jobs as police officers. The officer were not trained and there was not a standard to become an officer. The are were event when entire departments were involved in misconduct and corruption. There was not much hope in this era because there was a lack of supervision that allowed officers to behave the way that they pleased. (Walker, Samuel, and Richards, M. 1996)

One city beside New York that comes to mind when dealing with police corruption is the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD has been dealing with police corruption for a very long time, through racism and police brutality. One of their most notable corrupted endeavor was when seventy officers in the Rampart division faced claims of planting drugs and guns, beating suspects in custody and even shooting innocent citizens in gang sweeps. Former officer Rafael Perez agreed to a plea bargaining after being caught stealing cocaine from the evidence room. Perez discuss an incident when he and his former partner shot an innocent man during gang raid and planted a gun on him. Due to these incidents over a hundred criminal convictions were overturned.

The lack of Internal controls and a clearly defined structure for dealing with complaints of corruption are believed to have been the major contributing cause of the evolution of corruption in the NYPD, as revealed by the

In Edwin J. Deltarres' book Character and Cops he explores three hypotheses for police corruption in the United States. Some are somewhat historical, but they are still relevant to the problem of corruption today. The first hypothesis is called "the society at-large" theory by former Chicago Police Superintendent O. W. Wilson. Wilson was superintendent of the Chicago Police Department during the early nineteen sixties. The second hypothesis is called the "structural" theory. The third is called "the rotten apple theory." I will provide a brief analysis of the three hypotheses in this essay and examine which one(s) is valid today.

Corruption in law enforcement has been active since the beginning of this occupation. Certain characteristics of policing have changed throughout its years, but corruption is not one of them. In actuality, this phenomenon has increased significantly throughout its years. We are seeing more and more officers being arrested now. These arrests do not include the hundreds of officers that have not been caught. Police corruption can generally be defined as using one’s authority and power as a police to gain and benefit illicitly (Wilson et. al, 1977). Some officers become corrupted as early as the academy or as late as years into their career. Many are not even aware that the acts they are involved in are forms of corruption. Some acts may

Police corruption has been something which has been going on in the U.S for quite a long time. It’s been something we hear or see on the news since we were children and we are continuing to see it even our modern daily lives today. The most Common forms of police corruption we hear every day are theft of money and stolen drugs.

Specifically police corruption is "Unprofessional on- and off-duty misconduct, isolated instances of misuse of position, improper relationships with informants or criminals, sexual harassment, disparaging racial or sexual comments, embellished/falsified reporting, time and attendance abuse, insubordination, nepotism, cronyism, and noncriminal unauthorized disclosure of information all represent precursory signs of police deviance that inspection and internal affairs components must monitor." (An Examination of Police Corruption)

My memorandum is to address the issue of police corruption within xyz organization. Over quite a period of time, my investigation has revealed that police corruption has become a significant problem in this particular organization. We have substantial evidence supporting that members of xyz organization have been participating in protecting illegal activities, receiving payoffs for their cooperation with said activities, extortion, etc. These activities were highlighted as being corrupt behavior by Barker and Roebucks in 1973, and are one of the earliest typologies in this arena (Payne, 2012). These types of activities violate the trust that the public has placed in the members of xyz organization. It is commonly asserted that

Two New York police officers, Frank Serpico and David Durk had previously reported wide spread corruption in the department to several different supervisors, all the way up to the city's department of investigations, and nothing as done. (Dempsey & Forst, (2016).

In Oakland, California residents voted by margin of 82 percent to approve a “measure that will establish an independent police commission to oversee the city's Police Department.” Initiatives such as this will allow for more in-depth analysis and reform of the Oakland Police Department. This policy is a result of the police scandals associated with the department this year, including sexual misconduct involving several officers and the teenage daughter of a police dispatcher, racist text message exchanges between officers and the resignations or firings of several police chiefs.

WHY MISCONDUCT AND CORRUPTION OCCUR There are several theories as to why police misconduct and corruption occur. One theory centers on the police working personality. According to Schmalleger (2005) police officers share certain characteristics that are part of the police working personality. Insecurity, secrecy, hostility, cynicism, and being individualistic are a few of the characteristics

Police deviance, defined as behavior that does not conform to the standards of norms or expectations, is an unfortunate by-product of policing. Although society rightly feels that law enforcement officers should be held to a higher standard, the reality is they are humans and humans by nature are fallible. Our textbook outlines three major sources from which the standards of deviance are derived. These three sources are ethical, organizational, and legal. Ethical standards are the personal standards the officer brings with them to the department. It is the internal moral compass that an officer develops through their upbringing and their religious or cultural norms on which they base their decisions. Organizational standards are those

obtain financial gain, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers

When police officers take an oath, the badge represents honor, integrity, service, and dedication to the people we are sworn to protect. "The badge is much more than a just a piece of metal"(Leland, 2010). Police officers can sometimes get wrapped up in egos and take things too personally or interact with subjects they come across on the streets. These people in the streets are not police officers. Police corruption is only good as the training. When police officers are given power, they need to know the consequences of abusing power.

out that a violation of a specific institutional rule or law does not in itself constitute an act of corruption (Milner, 2016, p.25). Ideally, this implies that the act of taking a bribe by a police officer or harassing an inmate cannot be considered corruption if it does not result in a corrupting effect. Milner’s insight shows the problem of definition and application of corruption because some acts by police officers can be considered corrupt but other might not on moral ground or law. Similarly, Newburn and Webb (1999) pointed out that police corruption is what constitutes a breach of trust bestowed on the police. They argued that the “special trust” might be violated in two ways. First, it may be corrupted when the trust is used to provide service for money, and secondly when the police officer commits a crime under cover of the trust. Moreover, Newburn and Webb (1999) further argued that the definition of corruption must pay attention to both the means and the end of the activity. Ideally, Newburn and Webb (1999) offer a realistic definition of police corruption because it looks into the “means” and “end” of an action rather than the outcome only as Milner stipulates. Nevertheless, police corruption entails a broad perspective as defined by Punch (1985) and cited by Newburn and Webb (1999), he defines police corruption as occurring: