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Annalysis of police corruption

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Analysis of Police Corruption


Police corruption is a complex phenomenon, which does not


readily submit to simple analysis. It is a problem that has and will


Custom Essays on Annalysis of police corruption


continue to affect us all, whether we are civilians or law enforcement


officers. Since its beginnings, may aspects of policing have changed;


however, one aspect that has remained relatively unchanged is the


existence of corruption. An examination of a local newspaper or any


police-related publication on any given day will have an article about


a police officer that got busted committing some kind of corrupt act.


Police corruption has increased dramatically with the illegal cocaine


trade, with officers acting alone or in-groups to steal money from


dealers or distribute cocaine themselves. Large groups of corrupt


police have been caught in New York, New Orleans, Washington, DC, and


Los Angeles.


Methodology Corruption within police departments falls into


basic categories, which are external corruption and internal


corruption. In this report I will concentrate only on external


corruption because it has been the larger center of attention


recently. I have decided to include the fairly recent accounts of


corruption from a few major cities, mainly New York, because that is


where I have lived for the past years. I compiled my information


from numerous articles written in the New York Times over the last 5


years. My definitional infornmation and background data came from


various books cited that have been written on the issue of police


corruption. Those books helped me create a basis of just what the


different types of corruption and deviances are, as well as how and


why corruption happens. The books were filled with useful insite but


were not update enough, so I relied on the newspaper articles to


provide me with the current, and regional information that was needed


to complete this report. In simple terms, corruption in policing is


usually viewed as the misuse of authority by a police officer acting


offically to fulfill personal needs or wants. For a corrupt act to


occure, three distinct elements of police corruption must be present


simultaneously 1) missuse of authority, ) missuse of official


capacity, and ) missuse of personal attainment. (Dantzker, 15 p


157) It can be said that power inevitably tends to corrupt, and it is


yet to be recongnized that, while there is no reason to suppose that


policemen as individuals are any less fallible than other members of


society, people are often shocked and outraged when policemen are


exposed violating the law. The reason is simple. There diviance


elicits a special feeling of betrayal. Most studies support the view


that corruption is endemic, if not universal, in police departments.


The danger of corruption for police, and this is that it may invert


the formal goals of the organization and may lead to the use of


organizational power to encourage and create crime rather than to


deter it (Sherman 178 p 1) General police deviance can include


brutality, discrimination, sexual harassment, intimidation, and


illicit use of weapons. However it is not particularly obvious where


brutality, discrimination, and misconduct end and corruption begin.


Essentially, police corruption falls into two major categories--


external corruption which concerns police contacts with the public,


and internal corruption, which involves the relationships among


policemen within the works of the police department. The external


corruption generally concists of one ore more of the following


activities 1) Payoffs to police by essentially non-criminal elements


who fail to comply with stringent statutes or city ordinances; (for


example, inviduals who repeatedly violate traffic laws). ) Payoffs to


police by individuals who continually violate the law as a method of


making money (for example, prostitutes, narcotics addicts and


pusshers, & professional burglars). ) Clean Graft where money is


paid to police for services, or where courtesy discounts are given as


a matter of course to the police. Police officers have been involved


in activities such as extortion of money and/or narcotics from


narcotics viloators in order to aviod arrest; they have accepted


bribes; they have sold narcotics. They have known of narcotics


vilolations and have failed to take proper enforcement action. They


have entered into personal associations with narcotics criminals and


in some cases have used narcotics. They have given false testimony in


court in order to obtain dismissal of the charges against a


defendant. (Sherman 178 p 1) A scandal is perceived both as a


socially constructed phenomenon and as an agent of change that can


lead to realignments in the structure of power within oraganizations.


New york, for instance, has had more than a half dozen major scandals


concerning its police department within a century. It was the Knapp


Commission in 17 that first brought attention to the NYPD when they


released the results of over years of investigations of alleged


corruption. The findings were that bribery, especially amoung


narcotics officers, was extremely high. As a result many officers were


prosecuted and many more lost their jobs. A massive re-structuring


took place aftewards with strict rules and regulations to make sure


that the problem would never happen again. Be that as it may, the


problem did arrise once gain... Some of the most recent events to


shake New York City and bring attention to the national problem of


police corruption was brought up begining in 1 when five officers


were arrested on drug-trafficing charges.


Michael Dowd, the suspected ring leader, was the kind of cop


who gave new meaning to the word moonlighting. It wasnt just any job


that the 10-year veteran of the New York City force was working on the


side. Dowd was a drug dealer. From scoring free pizza as a rookie he


graduated to pocketing cash seized in drug raids and from there simply


to robbing dealers outright, sometimes also relieving them of drugs


that he would resell. Soon he had formed ''a crew of 15 to 0


officers in his Brooklyn precinct who hit up dealers regularly.


Eventually one of them was paying Dowd and another officer $8,000 a


week in protection money. Dowd bought four suburban homes and a


$5,000 red Corvette. Nobody asked how he managed all that on


take-home pay of $400 a week. In May 1 Dowd, four other officers


and one former officer were arrested for drug trafficking by police in


Long Islands Suffolk County. When the arrests hit the papers, it was


forehead-slapping time among police brass. Not only had some of their


cops become robbers, but the crimes had to be uncovered by a suburban


police force. Politicians and the media started asking what had


happened to the system for rooting out police corruption established


1 years ago at the urging of the Knapp Commission, the investigatory


body that heard Officer Frank Serpico and other police describe a


citywide network of rogue cops. (New York Times, March , 1 p 8)


To find out, at the time, New York City mayor David Dinkins


established the Mollen Commission, named for its chairman, Milton


Mollen, a former New York judge. Last week, in the same Manhattan


hearing room where the Knapp Commission once sat, the new body heard


Dowd and other officers add another lurid chapter to the old story of


police corruption. And with many American cities wary that drug money


will turn their departments bad, police brass around the country were


lending an uneasy ear to the tales of officers sharing lines of coke


from the dashboard of their squad cars and scuttling down fire escapes


with sacks full of cash stolen from dealers apartments. (New York


Times, April , 1 p. 5) The Mollen Commission has not uncovered a


citywide system of payoffs among the 0,000-member force. In fact,


last weeks testimony focused on three precincts, all in heavy crime


areas. But the tales, nevertheless, were troubling. Dowd described how


virtually the entire precinct patrol force would rendezvous at times


at an inlet on Jamaica Bay, where they would drink, shoot off guns in


the air and plan their illegal drug raids. (New York Times, Nov. 17,


1 p. ) It was victimless crimes problem which many view was a


prime cause in the growth of police abuse. Reports have shown that the


large majority of corrupt acts by police involve payoffs from both the


perpetrators and the victims of victimless crimes. The knapp


commission in the New York found that although corruption among police


officers was not restricted to this area, the bulk of it involved


payments of money to the police from gamblers and prostitutes. (Knapp


Commission Report, 17 pp 1-) ''The cops who were engaged in


corruption 0 years ago took money to cover up the criminal activity


of others, says Michael Armstrong, who was chief counsel to the


Knapp Commission. '' Now it seems cops have gone into competition with


street criminals. (Newsweek, Oct 1,1 p. 18) For cops as for


anyone else, money works age for crooked police. Gambling syndicates


in the 150s were protected by a payoff system more elaborate than the


Internal Revenue Service. Pervasive corruption may have lessened in


recent years, as many experts believe, but individual examples seem to


have grown more outrageous. In March authorities in Atlanta broke up a


ring of weight-lifting officers who were charged with robbing strip


clubs and private homes, and even carrying off 450-lb. safes from


retail stores. (Washington Post, Jan 18, 1 p. 11) The deluge of


cash that has flowed from the drug trade has created opportunities for


quick dirty money on a scale never seen before. In the 180s


Philadelphia saw more than 0 officers convicted of taking part in a


scheme to extort money from dealers. In Los Angeles an FBI probe


focusing on the L.A. County sheriffs department has resulted so far


in 6 indictments and 1 convictions on charges related to enormous


thefts of cash during drug raids -- more than $1 million in one


instance. ''The deputies were pursuing the money more aggressively


than they were pursuing drugs, says Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven


Bauer. (Washington Post, Jan 18, 1 p. 11) When cities enlarge


their police forces quickly in response to public fears about crime,


it can also mean an influx of younger and less well-suited officers.


That was a major reason for the enormous corruption scandal that hit


Miami in the mid-180s, when about 10% of the citys police were


either jailed, fired or disciplined in connection with a scheme in


which officers robbed and sometimes killed cocaine smugglers on the


Miami River, then resold the drugs. Many of those involved had been


hired when the department had beefed up quickly after the 180 riots


and the Mariel boatlift. ''We didnt get the quality of officers we


should have, says department spokesman Dave Magnusson. (Carter,


18 pp. 78-7) When it came time to clean house, says former Miami


police chief Perry Anderson, civil service board members often chose


to protect corrupt cops if there was no hard evidence to convict them


in the courts. ''I tried to fire 5 people with tarnished badges, but


it was next to impossible, he recalls. (Carter, 18 pp. 78-7)


The Mollen Commission testimony could also lead to second


thoughts on the growth of community policing, the back-to-the-beat


philosophy that in recent years has been returning officers to


neighborhood patrol in cities around the country, including New York.


Getting to know the neighborhood can mean finding more occasions for


bribe taking, which is one reason that in many places beat patrolling


was scaled back since the 160s in favor of more isolated squad-car


teams. The real test of a department is not so much whether its


officers are tempted by money but whether there is an institutional


culture that discourages them from succumbing. In Los Angeles the


sheriffs department ''brought us the case, says FBI special agent


Charlie Parsons. ''They worked with us hand in glove throughout the


investigation. (Washington Post, Jan 18, 1 p. 11) In the years


after it was established, following the Knapp Commission disclosures,


the New York City police departments internal affairs division was


considered one of the nations most effective in stalking corruption.


But that may not be the case anymore. Police sergeant Joseph Trimboli,


a department investigator, told the Mollen Commission that when he


tried to root out Dowd and other corrupt cops, his efforts were


blocked by higher-ups in the department. At one point, Trimboli


claimed, he was called to a meeting of police officials and told he


was under suspicion as a drug trafficker. ''They did not want this


investigation to exist, he said. (New York Times, April , 1 p.


5) It was at this time that New York City police commissioner, at the


time, Raymond Kelly announced a series of organizational changes,


including a larger staff and better-coordinated field investigations,


intended to improve internal affairs. His critics say those changes


dont go far enough. Much of that happened after Kellys reforms had


been announced. The Mollen Commission is recommend the establishment


of an outside monitoring agency, a move that Kelly and other police


brass have expressed some reservations about. ''No group is good at


policing itself, says Knapp Commission counsel Armstrong. ''It


doesnt hurt to have somebody looking over their shoulder. An


independent body, however, might be less effective at getting


co-operation from cops prone to close ranks against outsiders. ''You


have to have the confidence of officers and information about whats


going on internally, says former U.S. Attorney Thomas Puccio, who


prosecuted a number of police-corruption cases. (New York Times, April


, 1 p. 5) Getting that information was no easier when officers


were encouraged to report wrongdoing to authorities within their own


department. In many cities that have them, internal affairs divisions


are resented within the ranks for getting cops to turn in other cops


-- informers are even recruited from police-academy cadets -- and for


rarely targeting the brass. ''One of the things that has come out in


the hearings is a culture within the department which seems to permit


corruption to exist, says Walter Mack, a one time federal prosecutor


who is now New Yorks deputy commissioner of internal affairs. ''But


when youre talking about cultural change, youre talking about many


years. Its not something that occurs overnight. (New York Post,


June 14, 1 p. 8) Dowd, who was sentenced prison on guilty please,


put it another way. ''Cops dont want to turn in other cops, he


said. ''Cops dont want to be a rat. And even when honest cops are


willing to blow the whistle, there may not be anyone willing to


listen. (New York Times, Mar. , 1 p. 14) Is there a solution to


the police corruption problem? Probably not because since its


beginings, many aspects of policing have changed, but one thing that


has not is the existence of corruption. Police agenies, in an attempt


to elminate corruption have tried everything from increasing salaries,


requiring more training and education, and developing polices which


are intended to focus directly on factors leading to corruption. What


have all these changes done to eliminate or even decrease the


corruption problem? Little or nothing. Despite police departments


attempts to control corruption, it still occurs. Regardless of the


fact, police corruption cannot simply be over looked. Controling


corruption is the only way that we can really limit corruption,


because corruption is the by-product of the individual police officer,


societal views, and, police environmental factors. Therefore control


must come from not only the police department, but also must require


the assistance and support of the community members. Controling


corruption from the departmental level requires a strong leadership


organization, because corruption can take place any where from the


patrol officer to the chief. The top administrator must make it clear


from the start that he and the other members of the department are


against any form of corrupt activity, and that it will not be


tollerated in any way, shape, or form. If a police administrator does


not act strongly with disciplinary action against any corrupt


activity, the message conveyed to other officers within the department


will not be that of intimated nature. In addition it may even increase


corruption, because officers feel no actions will be taken against


them. Another way that police agencies can control its corruption


problem starts orginally in the academy. Ethical decisions and


behavior should be promoted, because failing to do make officers aware


of the consequences of corruption does nothing but encourages it.


Finally, many police departments, especially large ones, have an


Internal Affairs unit which operates to investigate improper conduct


of police departments. These units some times are run within the


department or can be a total outside agency to insure that there is


not corruption from within the Internal Affairs unit, as was alleged


in the 1 NYPD corruption scandal. Such a unit may be all that is


need to prevent many officers from being tempted into falling for


corrupt behavior patterns. Although the police agaency should be the


main source of controling its own corruption problem, there also


requires some support and assistance from the local community. It is


important that the public be educated to the negative affects of


corruption on their police agency. They should be taught that even


graitudes (the most basic and common form of police corruption) is


only a catalyst for more and future corruption. The community may even


go as far as establishing review boards, and investigative bodies to


help keep a careful eye on the agency. If we do not act to try and


control it, the costs can be enormous, because it affects not only the


individual, his department, the law enforcement community as a whole,


but society as well. Police corruption can be controlled; it just


takes a little extra effort. And In the long run, that effort will be


well worth it to both the agency and the community. (Walker, 1 p.


8)


The powers given by the state to the police to use force have


always caused concern. Although improvements have been made to control


corruption, numerous opportunities exist for deviant and corrupt


practices. The opportunity to aquire power in excess of that which is


legally permitted or to misuse power is always available. The police


subculture is a contributing factor to these practices, because


officers who often act in a corrupt manner are often over looked, and


condoned by other members of the subculture. As mentioned from the


very begining of this report the problem of police deviance and


corruption will never be completely solved, just as the police will


never be able to solve the crime problem in our society. One step in


the right direction, however, is the monitoring and control of the


police and the appropriate use of police style to enforce laws and to


provide service to the public.


Analysis of Police Corruption


Police corruption is a complex phenomenon, which does not


readily submit to simple analysis. It is a problem that has and will


continue to affect us all, whether we are civilians or law enforcement


officers. Since its beginnings, may aspects of policing have changed;


however, one aspect that has remained relatively unchanged is the


existence of corruption. An examination of a local newspaper or any


police-related publication on any given day will have an article about


a police officer that got busted committing some kind of corrupt act.


Police corruption has increased dramatically with the illegal cocaine


trade, with officers acting alone or in-groups to steal money from


dealers or distribute cocaine themselves. Large groups of corrupt


police have been caught in New York, New Orleans, Washington, DC, and


Los Angeles.


Methodology Corruption within police departments falls into


basic categories, which are external corruption and internal


corruption. In this report I will concentrate only on external


corruption because it has been the larger center of attention


recently. I have decided to include the fairly recent accounts of


corruption from a few major cities, mainly New York, because that is


where I have lived for the past years. I compiled my information


from numerous articles written in the New York Times over the last 5


years. My definitional infornmation and background data came from


various books cited that have been written on the issue of police


corruption. Those books helped me create a basis of just what the


different types of corruption and deviances are, as well as how and


why corruption happens. The books were filled with useful insite but


were not update enough, so I relied on the newspaper articles to


provide me with the current, and regional information that was needed


to complete this report. In simple terms, corruption in policing is


usually viewed as the misuse of authority by a police officer acting


offically to fulfill personal needs or wants. For a corrupt act to


occure, three distinct elements of police corruption must be present


simultaneously 1) missuse of authority, ) missuse of official


capacity, and ) missuse of personal attainment. (Dantzker, 15 p


157) It can be said that power inevitably tends to corrupt, and it is


yet to be recongnized that, while there is no reason to suppose that


policemen as individuals are any less fallible than other members of


society, people are often shocked and outraged when policemen are


exposed violating the law. The reason is simple. There diviance


elicits a special feeling of betrayal. Most studies support the view


that corruption is endemic, if not universal, in police departments.


The danger of corruption for police, and this is that it may invert


the formal goals of the organization and may lead to the use of


organizational power to encourage and create crime rather than to


deter it (Sherman 178 p 1) General police deviance can include


brutality, discrimination, sexual harassment, intimidation, and


illicit use of weapons. However it is not particularly obvious where


brutality, discrimination, and misconduct end and corruption begin.


Essentially, police corruption falls into two major categories--


external corruption which concerns police contacts with the public,


and internal corruption, which involves the relationships among


policemen within the works of the police department. The external


corruption generally concists of one ore more of the following


activities 1) Payoffs to police by essentially non-criminal elements


who fail to comply with stringent statutes or city ordinances; (for


example, inviduals who repeatedly violate traffic laws). ) Payoffs to


police by individuals who continually violate the law as a method of


making money (for example, prostitutes, narcotics addicts and


pusshers, & professional burglars). ) Clean Graft where money is


paid to police for services, or where courtesy discounts are given as


a matter of course to the police. Police officers have been involved


in activities such as extortion of money and/or narcotics from


narcotics viloators in order to aviod arrest; they have accepted


bribes; they have sold narcotics. They have known of narcotics


vilolations and have failed to take proper enforcement action. They


have entered into personal associations with narcotics criminals and


in some cases have used narcotics. They have given false testimony in


court in order to obtain dismissal of the charges against a


defendant. (Sherman 178 p 1) A scandal is perceived both as a


socially constructed phenomenon and as an agent of change that can


lead to realignments in the structure of power within oraganizations.


New york, for instance, has had more than a half dozen major scandals


concerning its police department within a century. It was the Knapp


Commission in 17 that first brought attention to the NYPD when they


released the results of over years of investigations of alleged


corruption. The findings were that bribery, especially amoung


narcotics officers, was extremely high. As a result many officers were


prosecuted and many more lost their jobs. A massive re-structuring


took place aftewards with strict rules and regulations to make sure


that the problem would never happen again. Be that as it may, the


problem did arrise once gain... Some of the most recent events to


shake New York City and bring attention to the national problem of


police corruption was brought up begining in 1 when five officers


were arrested on drug-trafficing charges.


Michael Dowd, the suspected ring leader, was the kind of cop


who gave new meaning to the word moonlighting. It wasnt just any job


that the 10-year veteran of the New York City force was working on the


side. Dowd was a drug dealer. From scoring free pizza as a rookie he


graduated to pocketing cash seized in drug raids and from there simply


to robbing dealers outright, sometimes also relieving them of drugs


that he would resell. Soon he had formed ''a crew of 15 to 0


officers in his Brooklyn precinct who hit up dealers regularly.


Eventually one of them was paying Dowd and another officer $8,000 a


week in protection money. Dowd bought four suburban homes and a


$5,000 red Corvette. Nobody asked how he managed all that on


take-home pay of $400 a week. In May 1 Dowd, four other officers


and one former officer were arrested for drug trafficking by police in


Long Islands Suffolk County. When the arrests hit the papers, it was


forehead-slapping time among police brass. Not only had some of their


cops become robbers, but the crimes had to be uncovered by a suburban


police force. Politicians and the media started asking what had


happened to the system for rooting out police corruption established


1 years ago at the urging of the Knapp Commission, the investigatory


body that heard Officer Frank Serpico and other police describe a


citywide network of rogue cops. (New York Times, March , 1 p 8)


To find out, at the time, New York City mayor David Dinkins


established the Mollen Commission, named for its chairman, Milton


Mollen, a former New York judge. Last week, in the same Manhattan


hearing room where the Knapp Commission once sat, the new body heard


Dowd and other officers add another lurid chapter to the old story of


police corruption. And with many American cities wary that drug money


will turn their departments bad, police brass around the country were


lending an uneasy ear to the tales of officers sharing lines of coke


from the dashboard of their squad cars and scuttling down fire escapes


with sacks full of cash stolen from dealers apartments. (New York


Times, April , 1 p. 5) The Mollen Commission has not uncovered a


citywide system of payoffs among the 0,000-member force. In fact,


last weeks testimony focused on three precincts, all in heavy crime


areas. But the tales, nevertheless, were troubling. Dowd described how


virtually the entire precinct patrol force would rendezvous at times


at an inlet on Jamaica Bay, where they would drink, shoot off guns in


the air and plan their illegal drug raids. (New York Times, Nov. 17,


1 p. ) It was victimless crimes problem which many view was a


prime cause in the growth of police abuse. Reports have shown that the


large majority of corrupt acts by police involve payoffs from both the


perpetrators and the victims of victimless crimes. The knapp


commission in the New York found that although corruption among police


officers was not restricted to this area, the bulk of it involved


payments of money to the police from gamblers and prostitutes. (Knapp


Commission Report, 17 pp 1-) ''The cops who were engaged in


corruption 0 years ago took money to cover up the criminal activity


of others, says Michael Armstrong, who was chief counsel to the


Knapp Commission. '' Now it seems cops have gone into competition with


street criminals. (Newsweek, Oct 1,1 p. 18) For cops as for


anyone else, money works age for crooked police. Gambling syndicates


in the 150s were protected by a payoff system more elaborate than the


Internal Revenue Service. Pervasive corruption may have lessened in


recent years, as many experts believe, but individual examples seem to


have grown more outrageous. In March authorities in Atlanta broke up a


ring of weight-lifting officers who were charged with robbing strip


clubs and private homes, and even carrying off 450-lb. safes from


retail stores. (Washington Post, Jan 18, 1 p. 11) The deluge of


cash that has flowed from the drug trade has created opportunities for


quick dirty money on a scale never seen before. In the 180s


Philadelphia saw more than 0 officers convicted of taking part in a


scheme to extort money from dealers. In Los Angeles an FBI probe


focusing on the L.A. County sheriffs department has resulted so far


in 6 indictments and 1 convictions on charges related to enormous


thefts of cash during drug raids -- more than $1 million in one


instance. ''The deputies were pursuing the money more aggressively


than they were pursuing drugs, says Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven


Bauer. (Washington Post, Jan 18, 1 p. 11) When cities enlarge


their police forces quickly in response to public fears about crime,


it can also mean an influx of younger and less well-suited officers.


That was a major reason for the enormous corruption scandal that hit


Miami in the mid-180s, when about 10% of the citys police were


either jailed, fired or disciplined in connection with a scheme in


which officers robbed and sometimes killed cocaine smugglers on the


Miami River, then resold the drugs. Many of those involved had been


hired when the department had beefed up quickly after the 180 riots


and the Mariel boatlift. ''We didnt get the quality of officers we


should have, says department spokesman Dave Magnusson. (Carter,


18 pp. 78-7) When it came time to clean house, says former Miami


police chief Perry Anderson, civil service board members often chose


to protect corrupt cops if there was no hard evidence to convict them


in the courts. ''I tried to fire 5 people with tarnished badges, but


it was next to impossible, he recalls. (Carter, 18 pp. 78-7)


The Mollen Commission testimony could also lead to second


thoughts on the growth of community policing, the back-to-the-beat


philosophy that in recent years has been returning officers to


neighborhood patrol in cities around the country, including New York.


Getting to know the neighborhood can mean finding more occasions for


bribe taking, which is one reason that in many places beat patrolling


was scaled back since the 160s in favor of more isolated squad-car


teams. The real test of a department is not so much whether its


officers are tempted by money but whether there is an institutional


culture that discourages them from succumbing. In Los Angeles the


sheriffs department ''brought us the case, says FBI special agent


Charlie Parsons. ''They worked with us hand in glove throughout the


investigation. (Washington Post, Jan 18, 1 p. 11) In the years


after it was established, following the Knapp Commission disclosures,


the New York City police departments internal affairs division was


considered one of the nations most effective in stalking corruption.


But that may not be the case anymore. Police sergeant Joseph Trimboli,


a department investigator, told the Mollen Commission that when he


tried to root out Dowd and other corrupt cops, his efforts were


blocked by higher-ups in the department. At one point, Trimboli


claimed, he was called to a meeting of police officials and told he


was under suspicion as a drug trafficker. ''They did not want this


investigation to exist, he said. (New York Times, April , 1 p.


5) It was at this time that New York City police commissioner, at the


time, Raymond Kelly announced a series of organizational changes,


including a larger staff and better-coordinated field investigations,


intended to improve internal affairs. His critics say those changes


dont go far enough. Much of that happened after Kellys reforms had


been announced. The Mollen Commission is recommend the establishment


of an outside monitoring agency, a move that Kelly and other police


brass have expressed some reservations about. ''No group is good at


policing itself, says Knapp Commission counsel Armstrong. ''It


doesnt hurt to have somebody looking over their shoulder. An


independent body, however, might be less effective at getting


co-operation from cops prone to close ranks against outsiders. ''You


have to have the confidence of officers and information about whats


going on internally, says former U.S. Attorney Thomas Puccio, who


prosecuted a number of police-corruption cases. (New York Times, April


, 1 p. 5) Getting that information was no easier when officers


were encouraged to report wrongdoing to authorities within their own


department. In many cities that have them, internal affairs divisions


are resented within the ranks for getting cops to turn in other cops


-- informers are even recruited from police-academy cadets -- and for


rarely targeting the brass. ''One of the things that has come out in


the hearings is a culture within the department which seems to permit


corruption to exist, says Walter Mack, a one time federal prosecutor


who is now New Yorks deputy commissioner of internal affairs. ''But


when youre talking about cultural change, youre talking about many


years. Its not something that occurs overnight. (New York Post,


June 14, 1 p. 8) Dowd, who was sentenced prison on guilty please,


put it another way. ''Cops dont want to turn in other cops, he


said. ''Cops dont want to be a rat. And even when honest cops are


willing to blow the whistle, there may not be anyone willing to


listen. (New York Times, Mar. , 1 p. 14) Is there a solution to


the police corruption problem? Probably not because since its


beginings, many aspects of policing have changed, but one thing that


has not is the existence of corruption. Police agenies, in an attempt


to elminate corruption have tried everything from increasing salaries,


requiring more training and education, and developing polices which


are intended to focus directly on factors leading to corruption. What


have all these changes done to eliminate or even decrease the


corruption problem? Little or nothing. Despite police departments


attempts to control corruption, it still occurs. Regardless of the


fact, police corruption cannot simply be over looked. Controling


corruption is the only way that we can really limit corruption,


because corruption is the by-product of the individual police officer,


societal views, and, police environmental factors. Therefore control


must come from not only the police department, but also must require


the assistance and support of the community members. Controling


corruption from the departmental level requires a strong leadership


organization, because corruption can take place any where from the


patrol officer to the chief. The top administrator must make it clear


from the start that he and the other members of the department are


against any form of corrupt activity, and that it will not be


tollerated in any way, shape, or form. If a police administrator does


not act strongly with disciplinary action against any corrupt


activity, the message conveyed to other officers within the department


will not be that of intimated nature. In addition it may even increase


corruption, because officers feel no actions will be taken against


them. Another way that police agencies can control its corruption


problem starts orginally in the academy. Ethical decisions and


behavior should be promoted, because failing to do make officers aware


of the consequences of corruption does nothing but encourages it.


Finally, many police departments, especially large ones, have an


Internal Affairs unit which operates to investigate improper conduct


of police departments. These units some times are run within the


department or can be a total outside agency to insure that there is


not corruption from within the Internal Affairs unit, as was alleged


in the 1 NYPD corruption scandal. Such a unit may be all that is


need to prevent many officers from being tempted into falling for


corrupt behavior patterns. Although the police agaency should be the


main source of controling its own corruption problem, there also


requires some support and assistance from the local community. It is


important that the public be educated to the negative affects of


corruption on their police agency. They should be taught that even


graitudes (the most basic and common form of police corruption) is


only a catalyst for more and future corruption. The community may even


go as far as establishing review boards, and investigative bodies to


help keep a careful eye on the agency. If we do not act to try and


control it, the costs can be enormous, because it affects not only the


individual, his department, the law enforcement community as a whole,


but society as well. Police corruption can be controlled; it just


takes a little extra effort. And In the long run, that effort will be


well worth it to both the agency and the community. (Walker, 1 p.


8)


The powers given by the state to the police to use force have


always caused concern. Although improvements have been made to control


corruption, numerous opportunities exist for deviant and corrupt


practices. The opportunity to aquire power in excess of that which is


legally permitted or to misuse power is always available. The police


subculture is a contributing factor to these practices, because


officers who often act in a corrupt manner are often over looked, and


condoned by other members of the subculture. As mentioned from the


very begining of this report the problem of police deviance and


corruption will never be completely solved, just as the police will


never be able to solve the crime problem in our society. One step in


the right direction, however, is the monitoring and control of the


police and the appropriate use of police style to enforce laws and to


provide service to the public.


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