Na’Darius Nealey
English 4 Period 4B
Ms.K
2 September 2014
Police Abuse of Powers
Police officers are given a lot of power because it is needed to help protect citizens and the community. However, police often abuse their power by the over use of force, corruption, sexual misconduct, bias based policing, and failure to maintain police ethics. (Peak, 2011)
The over use of force would include: unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment. Policing is a very dangerous field, the use of force is expected but the question still remains, how much force should police use? Police officers are given a continuum of force to help prevent excessive use of force, but there are still many officers that do not abide by
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(Peak, 2011)
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)
Drugs are also a cause of police abuse of power. There are two types of drug corruption. Type one drug corruption is when an officer is seeking personal gain. This type of drug corruption includes giving information to
Since their has been policing entities, it is understood by most that law enforcement officers have been performing a public service that is not easy to carry out. To assist law enforcement officers in diffusing situations, apprehending alleged criminals, and protecting themselves and others, officers are legally entitled to use appropriate means, including force. In discussing police misconduct, this report acknowledges not only the legal grant of such authority,
There are many effects on noble-cause corruption in police organizations and in any other complex organizations in our society. When dealing with criminals and/or other police associates you have to have certain values and beliefs. Generally these include the following qualities; “honesty, integrity, fairness, loyalty, kindness, courage, generosity, compassion, doing good, doing right, and unselfishness.” Without these qualities your unit or police force may see the effects of noble cause corruption. Noble-cause corruption can generally seep through the criminal justice system without anyone saying or doing anything about it.
Police have the uncontested right to use force when necessary to apprehend a suspect. If the force exceeds that which is necessary it is defined as excessive force and is illegal. An officer’s discretion on use of force is a based on judgment. They do not know if a judge will later rule an instance of use of force as excessive or not. There is a fine line between what is considered acceptable force and what is considered excessive force. All an
Police corruption and misconduct come apparent in many different forms. A basic definition for police corruption is, when an officer gets involved in offenses where the officer uses his or her position, by act or omission, to obtain improper financial benefit. The main reason for such corruption is typically for personal gain, such as bribery. Police abuse of authority occurs in three different general areas such as physical abuse, psychological abuse, and legal abuse. Physical abuse is such abuse where one uses excessive force or physical harassment. The psychological abuse occurs through disrespect, harassment, ridicule, excessive stops, or intimidation. Finally, legal abuse is abuse that occurs during unlawful search and seizure
Police officers are individuals who enforce the law upon their community to ensure that their citizens remain safe. In the past couple of years, officers of the law have been involved in acts of brutality that seem to go beyond the proper measurements of protection for their citizens. Policemen are supposed to protect their citizens from danger and from harm, not impose a threat on them. The fact that officers have a history of abusing their power indicates that their trust amongst the community has been corrupted. Those who have been affected of police brutality feel as though they have been deceived. They no longer feel that police officers will protect them, but rather abuse them, and that is a problem. We have began to live in a community in which an individual feels frightened when seeing a cop, rather than feeling protected. Some individuals may argue that police brutality is not a problem due to the fact that it is not consistent enough to catch the attention of needing a solution. However, that idea means little when the level of brutality has led to the death of several innocent victims in some cases. We must not wait for there to be a pattern of death at the hands of police officials to consider this a problem. One death indicates that preventive measures must be taken to ensure that these officers are no longer put in the position to abuse their power to begin with.
Police Officers use of force has been an big issue for many decades, But has now made its way to mainstream. From news to social media there 's always a recent relevant story/ case on police officers use of force. In 2016 Baton Rouge man, Alton Sterling was killed do to Police officers use of excessive force. This sparked an outrage in the nation after Mr. Sterlings murder went viral through social media. The shooting led to protests in Baton Rouge and a request for a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of the police officers actually serves their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic
The use of excessive force by police officers is a topic that continues to make headlines and a study that needs to be done. Although much research has gone into this topic there still is no consensus on why the use of excessive force occurs. Some studies suggest lack of training and/or problems with organization policy/procedures. Law enforcement officers are authorized to use force when necessary, but when the level of force is excessive, however, the actions of the police come under scrutiny. The resulting effects can include; public outrage, scandal, negative reputation for not only the officer but the law enforcement community, and criminal considerations. Although there’s is no concrete definition of excessive force, police
When debating the issue of police use of force, the issue of what actions constitute too much force must also be addressed. Another concern is the possibility of corruption amount officers. When given such great power, the probability of corruption is high. Officers generally do not start out as corrupt, but years of work on the force can create animosity between officers and suspects and lead them to decide to use force more quickly (McEwen, 1996). Many times, officers patrol the streets alone which creates the opportunity for potential abuse of power (McEwen, 1996). Although police officers need to be permitted to exercise some discretion, they also need limits and guidelines to follow when using their powers of discretion (Manning, 1997). The decision to use force should not be taken lightly in that citizen’s lives are at stake. Police should be allowed discretion in decisions to use force; however, this discretion should be limited. In several cases in Arizona, officers have used deadly means of force. In all cases, the officers
In simple terms, corruption in policing is usually viewed as the misuse of authority by a police officer acting to fulfill personal needs or wants. For a corrupt act to occur, three distinct elements of police corruption must be present simultaneously:
Excessive force and deadly force by police demands much of the media's attention today. There is not much stated about the lower levels of force that can reasonably be employed. "The ability to use non- negotiable coercive force force is the core of police role." (Wolf, 2009) The reason that people call on police is because they believe that some type of force is needed. Training on the use of force does not however give an officer knowledge on every situation. An officer has to decide what to do in a particular situation. These decisions may lead to an increase of decrease in force depending on responses of a subject. "According to the United States Constitution, Federal Laws and local policies, in cases where the use of force is necessary,
It can cause citizens to be unethical. In reality, they will be habituated with unfair actions behaved by the police officers; then, they will think that it is just a common action that is accepted by their society. They will also imitate the corruption and more illegal actions orderly. According to sociology, it is said that values held by a society and community reflect the behavior of people in the society (Weber, 1978). If police officers always corrupt, society will have less value with regards to corruption. Afterwards, it will affect the citizens’ behavior to be worse and the rate of crime to be higher as a result. We can notice that countries that are surveyed the most corrupted countries concerning the police, namely, Haiti, Mexico and Kenya, have under-standard social norm (10 most corrupt, 2014). To clarify, their citizens have habituated with corruption and other terrible behaviors that are conducted by the police officers. We will easily see the obvious difference of social value about police corruption, when we compare the most corrupted countries with the least corrupted one like, according to the annual survey by the Berlin-based organization Transparency International, Denmark (The world's least corrupt, 2013). After the citizens become habituated with the corruption, it is evident that the
The broad or basic dictionary definition of corruption is dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery ("Corruption |Usage Example Sentence, Pronunciation, Web Definition | Google Dictionary."). My definition of corruption is the same, but my definition of corruption in law enforcement is different. This is my definition of corruption in law enforcement; when officers of the law are apart of officer misconduct and corruption which are abuses of their police authority. The misconduct and corruption refer to a wide range of different procedural, criminal, and civil violations. Officer misconduct is the broadest category, it is "procedural" when misconduct refers to officers who violate their police departments rules and/or regulations; it is "criminal" when misconduct refers to officers who violate state and/or federal laws; it is "unconstitutional" when misconduct refers to officers who violate a citizen 's civil rights. The most common forms of officer misconduct are the excessive use of physical and/or deadly force, discriminatory arrest, physical and/or verbal harassment, and selective enforcement of the law. People who are corrupt in law enforcement create a negative perception of the United States legal system. What is corruption and where is corruption in our world?
Political Corruption is has a drastic effect on every American Citizen. Corruption is defined as a form of unethical or dishonest conduct by an individual who is in a position of authority. Corruption has detrimental effects and undermines every level of government. Various forms of corruption effect the Government. Corruption such as Law Enforcement, Judicial, and Correctional. In order for our justice system to work, we as citizens must have faith that it is impartial, just and fair for all. Corruption in any form in our system is dangerous, but corruption in the justice system can have disastrous effects not only on the system but the lives of citizens. The most notable form of corruption found in the justice system is Law Enforcement Corruption. Law Enforcement Corruption is the misconduct and abuse of power by law enforcement officers. Misconduct such as bribery, extortion, and misconduct. Bribery is when one person guarantees an outcome of a situation in exchange for goods, services or money. Extortion is similar is the act of obtaining something by utilizing force or blackmail. Abuse of Power is the act of using one's authority in a way that is detrimental to others. In the instance of Law Enforcement, it is usually used to describe excessive physical violence to individuals (The Week Staff).
These different branches allow people to visualize the differences between corruptions seen throughout the studies. It has been said, that trust is the major cause and effect of corruption, which leads us to the negative impacts in law enforcement. There have been many cases and high levels of corruption in the Mexican law enforcement, all among the four hundred thousand Mexican police that have been involved.(Luminita, 2011). As mentioned before, Democracy has been a problem for the Latin America due to the bribery and perception that the citizens tend to have. It has been seen for an ordinary citizen to pay money to a police officer to solve a conflict.( Luminita, 2011). This action is in accordance to the citizen and officer in charge, yet mistakes allow others to perceive a certain idea and therefore disagree with the government.