Police corruption is a nationwide problem
that has been going on for many years. Not only is corruption a problem on our
own U.S. soil, but police practices of corruption go as far east as Europe and
Asia. Many studies, polls and examinations were taken to find out how exactly
what the general publics’ opinions of the police are. Officers receive a lot of
scrutiny over this issue, but for good reason.
In
the 1980’s legal tension involving police searches was a direct result of the
war on drugs campaign. Officers were encouraged to stop and seize or search
suspicious vehicles to put a halt on drug trafficking (Harns, 1998). But placing this
aggressive approach into effect had many negative outcomes. One problem was
that it put police on a thin line with
the constitutional laws. To no surprise, pretty much no data estimating how
often police searches fall outside constitutional laws exist. Only cases that
catch the courts attention are logged into the record books. A case study held
in “Middleburg” on suspect searches reports that 70 of the 86 searches didn’t
result in arrest; citations weren’t presented nor were any charges filed. Just
about all of the unconstitutional searches, 31 out of 34, weren’t reported to
the courts, nor were they intended to be reported.
Race
has played a big role is these searches as well. Out of the 114 police stops,
an astounding 96 were African-American citizens, and 30% of those 96 stops were
more than likely to be unconstitutional, compared to 22% of whites that were
stopped. Brutality has also been an issue linked with these unconstitutional
traffic stops. It’s so common between cops that there’s a tendency for
repeated abuse of power and
it’s basically turned into the “norm”. This isn’t good because with cops
thinking like that it gives them somewhat of a necessity to break the law. They
basically feel that in order for them to enforce the law they have to break
some. Cops practice this unwritten rule everywhere, especially Los Angeles’
CRASH unit. Corruption was so common in the CRASH unit that they had standard
procedures to cover it up if something went wrong. Overall, the LAPD didn’t
have the strong support it needed from the community. Officers were distrustful
of management, had low morale, engaged in racial profiling, and did
Not see
their communities as partners in crime solving, but as enemies.
Perjury
is also a huge problem associated with corruption. Officers in question follow
the unwritten tradition of gathering evidence illegally and then lying about it
on the stand. They
basically decide to “forget” evidence altogether. Framing suspects, or even the
framing of innocent people, became almost common. According to a study done by
Rafael Perez, an officer involved with the Rampart Scandal, “officers appear to
have had complete disregard for rules about use of force, and concentrated
their efforts on busily covering their tracks when the force resulted in injury
or even death”. These elements were used in the event of what has become known
as the Rampart scandal. It was a discovery in March of 1998 of six to eight
pounds of cocaine missing from the evidence room of the Rampart Division of the
Los Angeles Police Department. It turns out that officer Perez stole it, resold
it and replaced the bags with pancake batter. He was later arrested for his
actions. These cases are not uncommon place at all, not only was this a problem
in Los Angeles, in 1979, for instance, the federal prosecutor indicted an
entire police department in the city of Philadelphia.
In
conclusion, police practice many forms of corruption whether it be perjury,
brutality, or drug trafficking. This problem is well known but precincts don’t
want any dirt on their departments so they find ways to clean their dirty
laundry. They even practice ways to escape prosecution if ever suspected of
breaking a law. Overall there are some good cops out there but unfortunately
the corruption in inner cities give all cops a bad name. But, the question is what can we do to
stop it? We can stop being so embarrassed of getting our departments dirty and
fess up to clean up!
The
Obvious escapes many; will you let it escape you?
Capt.
Obvious
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