Corruption and Law Enforcement

Tulia, a small town in Texas of just under five-thousand people, is a frightening example of how the judicial system is governed solely by racism as well as one corrupt man’s word. In 1999, nearly ten percent of the town’s African American population was arrested in a single drug bust. Of the forty-six people arrested, thirty-eight were African-American, furthermore all were convicted. The remaining seven arrested where know to associate more with the black community than the white in Tulia as well. With the towns income levels averaging at or below the poverty line, most arrested could not afford to hire a good attorney that cared or had the time to care, left therefore with one provided by the state. Consequently, convictions were up to ninety years in jail for allegedly selling three and a half grams, more commonly known as an eight ball, of cocaine in drug-free zones. In was only on appeals, that the convictions where revoked on insubstantial evidence.

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)

In this paper I will discuss the history of the NYPD Corruption. I will address the founding of the department in 1845 and a few early scandals. The New York City Police Department officially is the largest municipal police force in the United States Established in 1845, the agency has primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City.The NYPD is one of the oldest police departments established in the U.S tracing its roots back to the seventeenth century. The NYPD has specialized services, including the Emergency Service Unit, K9, harbor patrol, air support, bomb disposal, counter-terrorism, criminal intelligence, anti-gang, anti-organized crime, narcotics, public transportation and public

Police corruption contributes to the misuse of police powers because it involves the use of favoritism, bribery, shakedown, and perjury. Police corruption can be caused from discretion, low managerial visibility, low public visibility, and politics. Police officers are given a wide range of discretion on how to handle situations and that often leads to the abuse of power. Also, managers are not always watching over the officer’s shoulder to ensure that the right thing is being done, and the public does not often see the actions of the police. Which means they can get away with a lot of wrongful actions. Politics can create corruption in policing because politics can affect hiring standards, promotions, discipline, and adequate budget. There have been instances where a political leader would tell management who they want to be promoted. That is wrong because promotions should be dependent on your work ability, not because of political influence. There is also external corruption that will convince the officer to engage in payoffs and gratuities. For example: drug dealers would give police officers a percentage of their profit so that they can continue to sell and not go to jail. (Locke, 1996)

In order for a Police agency to prevent and deter Police misconduct, there must be a definition to what actions and behaviors that the term will encompass. The term ‘police corruption’ has been used to describe many activities: bribery; violence and brutality; fabrication and destruction of evidence; racism; favoritism or nepotism. Many different scholars differ in their own examples of the definition. Before attempting to the question of whether a precise definition is possible, it is worth examining the range of activities that might be included within a broad discussion of corruption. In (Bayley and Perito, 2011), it is defined as police corruption is a contested phrase with narrow and broad meanings. Narrowly

Police corruption can also be explained by the lack of protection and security police feel they have. They also feel like they are being disrespected by individuals in society, which is why they rely on the subculture for protection and support (Skolnick, 1966). The police subculture has created a lot of secrecy within the organization, which contributes to police misconduct. Police officers will often ignore another police officer’s corrupt actions in order to maintain a good reputation within the subculture (Tator & Henry, 2006). For example, 84% of police officers have directly witnessed another officer using more force than necessary out on the streets (US Department of Justice, 2017). However, instead of reporting the acts of others, 52%

The Miami River Cops scandal was an unfortunate blemish on the Miami Police Department’s reputation. Many factors contributed to the 100 plus police officers involvement, three of the most significant being; corrupt leadership, personal greed, and victimless crimes. The Miami Police Department responded tenaciously to the corruption by establishing measures with the aim of preventing such rampant corruption in the future. As shocking as the Miami River Cops corruption scandal may seem, it is certainly not the only case of police corruption to happen within the United States. Another equally shocking case of police corruption occurred in Cleveland, Ohio when 44 officers from five law enforcement agencies were charged with corruption stemming from narcotics.

Police corruption has been around for a long time. It started around the 1900s. I feel it still exists today in some of the big cities and in other countries. I have noticed in the news, that a lot of police brutality and taking bribes from businesses is given for looking the other way. Racial profiling is a longstanding and deeply troubling national problem despite claims that the United States has entered a “post-racial era.” I think money and racism are the big motivations that cause corruption, as well as some police feel they are above the law.

Corruption within the New York Police Department is a quickly growing phenomenon; to an extent, this is largely due to the cop culture that encourages silence and draws the line at honesty. The good, honest officers are afraid to speak up against co-workers and in the process become corrupt themselves. When police departments were first established in the mid-nineteenth century, corruption quickly followed suit. It began with minor acts of misconduct and today deals with serious criminal activities. Scholars have noted that there is a strong correlation between the officers taking part in corrupt acts and officers wanting to fit in with the culture. In this paper, I argue that the deeper an officer in the New York police department gets into the police culture, the more likely it is that they become involved in narcotic corruption

Not only does corruption occur in society, but however, it occurs at every stage of the criminal justice chain. It can be emphasized that the rule of law has essentially vanished astonishingly. The former Attorney General himself, Eric Holder, felt compelled to emphasize “As a prosecutor, a judge, an attorney in private practice, and now, as our nation’s attorney general, I’ve seen the criminal justice system firsthand, from nearly every angle. While I have the utmost faith in — and dedication to — America’s legal system, we must face the reality that, as it stands, our system is in too many respects broken.” at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association's House of Delegates. However, how is America supposed to function with a corrupted justice system? A corrupted justice system not only violates the basic rights to equality before the law, but denies procedural rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution. The justice system in America vigorously demotes justice, instead of promoting actual justice by allowing American Prosecutors within court to exercise the practice of handing out punishments and not justice. The American Justice system is corrupted because threats necessitate plea bargains, unequal incarceration rights are enforced, winning tends to trump justice, for-profit prisons are active, and public defense tends to be worthless.

When it comes to police corruption there are so much police misuse being conducted as police being officers they take their a police authority that they have a police officer and just misuse the power that they have. When it comes to police corruption the actions that the officers have they use it inappropriately as not as they should but as personal gain. When police officers uses their power as personal gain the actions good and bad behavior when it comes to the officers. Just thinking about police corruption and how they use and mistreat but that is one of the misconducts for a law enforcement officer. There are two kinds of abuses and they are abuse of authority and occupational deviance. Where occupational deviance is the deviant behavior

From the first police station built in Boston to what is today's modern police force there has always been corruption inside the criminal justice system, whether it be something as little as a small bribe to look the other way, or something more serious like getting away with a major offense. The department of justice has had trouble from top to bottom with corruption and it has proven to be a difficult problem to fix. When policing in the U. S. were just starting out corruption and law bending was more prevalent but harder to see which Police officers who were following the rules and who was bending the law in their own favor to gain an advantage for themselves rather than looking out for the community as a whole. This is because when policing first started out there were limited officers, which meant less word of mouth and less people to respond to and

Police corruption is one of the ethical issues affecting law enforcement officers. Corruption is defined as “impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle; inducement to do wrong by improper or unlawful means” (Merriam Webster Online, 2009). While the most recognizable form of corruption involves officers taking money for favors (bribery), the actions that are considered corruption include filing false police reports, harassment of any person due to sex, race, creed, religion, national origin or sexual orientation, and failure to protect the rights of citizens. Corruption exists in all levels of law enforcement.

It is obvious that police officers are using their jobs as law enforcers to obtain illegal items and are shamefully betraying their police departments. The policemen who were involved in this drug smuggle were veterans. When people think of veterans, whether it be a veteran of war or a veteran of a police department, we think of someone who has devoted many years, served and been loyal to the service. People have admiration for veterans and recognize them for being committed to the service as well as being faithful to every year they have been involved in it. Now the four veteran police officers from Chicago will be spending time in prison instead of adding more years to the service of policing. Those years that the veteran police officers were dedicated to the policing is now history, they could have helped lower crime rates in Chicago, but instead they are facing prison time.

Gratuity can be defined as any discount, gift or benefit one receives by virtue of their profession. In policing that could come in the form of free coffee, food, services or cash. Police accepting gratuities can lead them down what is called a slippery slope into a life of corruption. An example would be that an officer will start with accepting free coffee and next the officer begins feeling entitled to other things that one can get from the person offering the free gift, so the officer starts asking for other things like a deep discount on his food plate. This then turns into the gratuity giver providing more favors but has decided that the officer needs to provide something in return for them something like increased patrol during closing or provide security to the bank for a business owner. Making these types of agreements of what is called “you scratch mine I will scratch yours back” is not considered ethical behavior because those type of services that the owner is asking for can be provided upon agreement from the officer’s superior and police officers gets paid enough money to be able to pay for all that they eat and drink throughout each day, so none of these behaviors are necessary they are just actions will eventually lead to corruption.