corruption
acts involving misuse of authority by a police officer in a manner designed to produce personal gain for the officer or others
ethics
the study of what constitutes good or bad conduct
police use of ethics
use a lot of discretion, protect constitution, and are public servants
knapp commission
commission created in 1970 to investigate allegations of widespread, organized corruption in the NYCPD
possible explanations for corruption
individual officers explanation
social structural explanations
neighborhood explanations
the nature of police work
the police organization
the police subculture
two types of corrupt police officers
meat eaters and grass eaters
grass eaters
police officers who participate in more passive type of police corruption by accepting opportunities of corruption that present themselves
meat eaters
offers who participate in a more aggressive type of police corruption by seeking out and taking advantage of opportunities of corruption
four types of police corruption
taking gratuities, bribes, theft or burglary, and internal corruption
gratuities
items of value received by someone because of his or her role or job rather than because of a personal relationship
bribe
payment of money or other contribution to a police officer with the intent to subvert the aim of the criminal justice system
three levels of police corruption
- rotten apples and rotten pockets
- pervasive, unorganized
-pervasive organized
rotten apple theory
theory of corruption in which it is believed that individual officers within the agency are bad rather then the organization as a whole
noble cause corruption
stems from ends-oritented policing and involves police officers bending the rules to achieve the right goal of putting criminal in jail
police misconduct
drug related corruption, sleeping on duty, police deception (perjury), sex related corruption, and domestic violence
drug related corruption
drug users and dealer; good targets for corrupt officers
biased based policing
any police initiated activity that relies on a person's race or ethnic background rather than one behavior as a basis for identifying that individual as being involved in criminal activity
police brutality
has existed as long as there have been organized police departments
responses to police corruption
-investigation
-discipline and termination
-preventive administration
-citizen oversight
citizen oversight
also referred to as a civilian review or external review. a method that allows for the independent citizen review of complaint filled against police through a board or committee that independently reviews allegation of misconduct
civil liability
potential liability for payment of damages as a result of ruling in a lawsuit
criminal liability
subject to punishment for a crime