This paper will discuss police corruption and misconduct in different areas of the world as well as the ethics involved. Police Corruption First we start with what corruption is and what is considered to be police corruption. According to Pollock (2010), “ Corruption has been described as acting on opportunities, created by virtue of one’s authority, for personal gain at the expense of the public one is authorized to serve”(pg.178). Corruption occurs in different situations that include corruption of authority, kickbacks, theft, illegal activities, payoffs, and shakedowns (Pollock 2010). Police corruption has become a big deal and can be taken back to years ago when Rodney King who was a harmless civilian at
2013) Police often blame the victim of police brutality when accused of being too brutal with their use of force. With this as a common issue, police departments across the United States have decided to fight against that statistic. Many times, when a police officer is accused of police brutality, they are immediately put on suspension. Within the terms of their suspension, either an outside agency or internal affairs department does an investigation determining what may have happened. This would typically include interviewing potential witnesses, determining what happened, and putting the pieces together.
To start off the Sean Bell case was an example of Police brutality. Police Brutality is one of the most serious issues of human violation that is unaddressed because of the cover up by fellow police officers during internal investigations. There are many instances when police officers engage in the activities of rough physical behaviors such as shooting, beating, torture and other unnecessary brutal acts among citizens which often result in injury or sometimes even death. Suspects of a crime, the victims, as well as their families, who are seeking justice, are usually disregarded. Usually if not always the people who deserve to be held accountable by the brutal violation of human rights getaway from the due punishment and continue to do their foul crimes (Collins 1).
The word "brutality" means savage cruelty. The term “police brutality” was first used in the New York Times in 1893 to describe a police officer’s beating of a civilian (Police brutality ,Wikipedia). It is now used to describe the excessive use of physical force attacks, verbal attacks, and threats potentially by various law enforcement personnel including police officers, federal agents, sheriff’s departments and other law enforcement officers when dealing with civilians under the name of authority. The history of police brutality goes back to the beginning of the policing system; in fact, the existence of police has cultivated an atmosphere of intense fear and anxiety since centuries because of the abusive treatment and the excessive force which were used in order to achieve an efficient control of citizens. In the past few years, the number of police brutality victims and the number of incidents in the United States increased
Behind the Power: A Reflection of Police Brutality, Abuse of Power and Crossing the Line The author analyzes national and local cases of what some call police brutality, abuse of power, and corruption—when those wielding the badge cross the thin blue line. No police force in the United States is perfect. Each is marred by corruption, or controversy. History can tell us that there have been prime examples of when police officers were influenced by politicians, the higher class, and their own needs. The current El Paso Police Department is a prime example.
As the rot spreads, even more crime is generated by the climate of disorder and ennui it produces” ( Duk, Steven B. Dec. 1993). Drug prohibition also fosters crime by producing officialcorruption. The news media are full of accounts of cops caught stealing money or drugs from dealers or simply taking money to look the other way. Even judges and prosecutors are sometimes implicated. Such pervasive corruption denigrates and demoralizes all law enforcers and causes disrespect for law among citizens.The distractive effects of the drug war on law enforcement indirectly but profoundly encourage crime.
The obvious examples in the past were when police officers have a power to arrest with ‘sus’ laws, under the 1824 Vagrancy Act (s4 and s6). Many people saw and ethnic minorities felt the abuse of this practice. Police officer stop and search and arrest people based on ‘intent to commit an arrestable offence’ for people grouping in public area. Hunte (1966: 12) mentioned ‘nigger hunting’ activity by junior police officer. Due to this problem, Scarman Report suggested to reform ‘recruitment and training’ because of racism in young police officers.
| Checkpoint | Issues in Policing | CJS/210 Prof. Beeler | Karen Spangler | 10/26/2012 | The issues that face law enforcement agencies today are ethics and corruption, profiling, and the use of force, within police departments. Police officers must adhere to a higher standard of ethics because of the amount of power that the uniform and badge that they wear holds. It is when an officer uses and abuses this power to their advantage or gain, that it becomes a problem. The saying, "a few bad apples spoils the bunch", is apropos when referring to police corruption. Profiling is when law enforcement inappropriately considers a person's race or ethnicity when deciding how and if they are going to interact with a person in an enforcement
And most people won’t even know their identity’s been stolen until it’s too late and they become a victim to identity theft. Identity thieves can cause a lot of harm to their victims, such as stealing their personal information; several negative effects identity theft has on its victims are using your identity for criminal activities, financial loss, and it can even put people in physical danger. The most important effect identity theft causes is that criminals can use your identity to commit crimes. Such as drug smuggling or crossing state lines they can commit fraud to gain government benefits. And by using their identity to commit these crimes can seriously damage someone’s reputation.
This can also tie into cynicism, in ways that a police officer can approach his job in a cynical way. Punish others for