Bethel University Police Ethics and Police Deviance Research 1. Research the Knapp Commission and conclusions reached. Do you agree or disagree with their

Bethel University Police Ethics and Police Deviance Research 1. Research the Knapp Commission and conclusions reached. Do you agree or disagree with their recommendations?

2. Research the Bell, California corruption trial and its results. What do you think caused this and allowed it to go on? What recommendations would you endorse and why?

3. Research the topic of “solvability factors” and how they can affect a criminal investigation. Should they be used or not?

4. You are a seasoned police officer, and your beat partner is the subject of a police investigation. You have knowledge of what the officer has done and will be called before an investigation board. Your partner has asked for your help and to make up a story so she can “beat the rap” and continue her career. What will you do and why? How will your partner feel?

** The minimum word requirement is a total of 1,200 words. The response should be supported with a minimum of three scholarly references as well as in-text citations, using proper APA format. (The references doesn’t count towards the word count!) CHAPTER
8
Police Ethics and Police
Deviance
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
• Identify some of the
forms and extent of
police deviance.
• Explain various reasons
for police corruption,
including why corruption
may be more likely in
policing than in other
professions.
• Discuss various
responses to police
brutality and corruption,
both within departments
and agencies and in the
community.
• Explain how officers can
be held legally liable for
their conduct, including
the reasons for and
results of legal action
brought against officers.
• Describe the effects of
allegations of corruption
on the officer, the
agency, law enforcement
in general, and the
community.
M
I
L
E
S
,
S
H
O U T L I N EA
N
Ethics and the Police
The Dilemma ofN
Law Versus Order
O
Review of the Police
Police Corruption
N
Corruption Makes Good Books
and Films
Examples of Police Corruption
1 Corruption
Reasons for Police
Types and Forms
9 of Corruption
Noble Cause Corruption
Effects of Police0Corruption
Other Police Misconduct
9
Drug-Related Misconduct
T
Sleeping on Duty
Police Deception
S
amc/Alamy
Sex-Related Misconduct
Domestic Violence in Police Families
Biased-Based Policing
Police Brutality
Responses to Police Corruption
Investigations
Discipline and Termination
Preventive Administrative Actions
Citizen Oversight

Police Civil and Criminal Liability
State Liability
Federal Liability
Reasons for Suing Police Officers
Effects of Lawsuits on Police
Departments and Officers
The Emotional Toll of
Police Lawsuits
9781305724860, An Introduction to Policing, Eighth Edition, Dempsey/Forst – © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
CHAPTER 8
INTRODUC TION
Police officers in the United States are given tremendous authority and wide latitude in using that authority. In addition, to the average citizen, the police are
the most visible symbol of not only the U.S. criminal
justice system but also the U.S. government.
Many police officers complain that the press overdoes coverage of corrupt or brutal police officers.
The home videotape of the 1991 beating of African
American motorist Rodney King by four white Los
Angeles police officers was broadcast over every television network in the United States for weeks. The 1997
Abner Louima case (in which a New York City police
officer allegedly inserted a stick into the rectum
M of a
prisoner and then put the feces- and blood-covered
I
stick into the prisoner’s mouth) was worldwide news.
L coverSometimes it can seem like the media is only
ing the bad things and ignoring all the goodEwork that
police officers do on a daily basis.
S
We must remember that the media operate under
, that is
the following philosophy: If a dog bites a person,
not news. Dogs bite people every day of the week. But
if a person bites a dog, that is news. Newsworthy items
S
H
A
N
Ethics and the Police N
What is ethics? Ethics is defined as theOstudy of
what constitutes good or bad conduct. The
N term is
often used interchangeably with morals, which is
understandable because they came from similar root
meanings pertaining to behavioral practices
1 or character. Applied ethics is concerned with the study of
9 in cerwhat constitutes right and wrong behavior
1
tain situations. Basic ethics are the rather
0 broad
moral principles that govern all conduct, whereas
9
applied ethics focuses these broad principles
on
specific applications. For example, a basic
T ethical
tenet assumes that lying is wrong, and applied ethics
S
would examine under what conditions such a wrong
would occur.
Aristotle defined virtue as what he called the
Golden Mean or Nicomachean ethics. This philosophy suggests that life circumstances trigger a natural range of response that includes a mean between
POLICE ETHICS AND POLICE DEVIANCE
227
are the events that are different and not normal. Police
officers across the United States do thousands of good
acts every day. They arrest lawbreakers, find lost children and people suffering from Alzheimer’s, walk the
elderly across the street, bring the sick and injured to the
hospital, deliver babies, stop fights and arguments, and
counsel the confused. That is their job, and they do it
well, but that is not news. But when the very people we
trust to uphold our law—to serve as the model of what
our law is and what it stands for—violate that law, that
is news. That is the person biting the dog. It is healthy
that police misconduct is news. Imagine if this misconduct were so common that it did not qualify as news.
It must be remembered, before reading this chapter, that the vast majority of the more than 800,000 men
and women in our nation’s law enforcement agencies
are extremely ethical. Unfortunately, a few are not,
and therefore, this chapter must exist. However, it is
indeed about the person biting the dog, not the dog
biting the person. This chapter will discuss ethics and
police deviance, including police corruption and other
misconduct such as police sexual violence, domestic
violence in police families, police deception, and police
brutality.
excessive and defective responses. A person’s character traits” are the individual’s habitual ways of
responding, and individuals who are the most admirable are those who find the norm between the two
extremes regularly. The virtues cited by Aristotle
more than 2,000 years ago include courage, selfcontrol, generosity, high-mindedness, gentleness,
truthfulness, and modesty.2 These traits are still
looked upon as evidence of good character.
Over the past few decades, there has been a
growing interest in ethics in the academic and law
enforcement literature, including textbooks, studies, journal articles, and media articles. Many
departments and law enforcement organizations are
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.
9781305724860, An Introduction to Policing, Eighth Edition, Dempsey/Forst – © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
228
PART 2
THE PERSONAL SIDE OF POLICING
promoting in-service training in the area of ethics.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police
(IACP) offers courses in ethics, including “Ethical
Standards in Police Service, Force Management, and
Integrity Issues” and “Value-Centered Leadership:
A Workshop on Ethics and Quality Leadership.”
The IACP and the Office of Community Oriented
Policing Services (COPS) have made an “Ethics
Toolkit” resource available on the IACP website
for increasing awareness of law enforcement ethics.
Additionally, the FBI Virtual Academy has partnered with COPS to provide a free online course for
law enforcement personnel on ethics for the individual officer. Many departments have incorporated
ethics into their mission statements, core values,
and hiring process. They also have stressed ethics
M
training as part of their commitment to community
I is
policing. These departments recognize that trust
a vital element of community policing and that ethiL
cal people inspire trust but unethical people do not.
E
They realize that ethics training will help departments recognize their full potential.
S
It is important for police officers to study eth,
ics for many reasons. Police officers use a lot of discretion, and one of their duties is the enforcement of
the law. It is their duty to protect the constitutional
S
safeguards, such as due process, and the equal protection that are the basis of our system. They H
are
public servants, and their behavior involves the
A
public trust. Education and training that address
N
the issue of ethical decision making will aid officers
in the decision-making process. As mentioned, N
the
IACP and police departments across the nation have
O
recognized the importance of this topic, and ethics
training takes place both in academies and as partNof
in-service training.
How do we measure police ethical standards?
What standards have been established to determine
1
how police officers should act? Joycelyn Pollock, in
her excellent book Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions9in
Criminal Justice, identified some of these standards:
0
• Organizational value systems or codes of ethics
9
designed to educate and guide the behavior of
T
those who work within the organization
Sa
• An oath of office, which can be considered
shorthand version of the value system or code of
ethics
• The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics, as promulgated by the International Association of
Chiefs of Police (IACP)3
Other standards governing police ethics are
the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, case
law as determined by appellate courts and the U.S.
Supreme Court, and federal and state criminal laws
and codes of criminal procedure.
Although these standards appear to set a perfect
example for police officers and mandate exemplary
performance by them, how widely accepted and followed are they by individual officers and departments? As Pollack explains, the police subculture
often works against these official ethical precepts.4
The informal code of conduct that is taught through
socialization includes doing the right amount of work,
keeping a cool head, backing up fellow officers, not
giving up another cop, not volunteering information,
not making waves, covering their butts, and not trusting administration to look out for their best interests.
This subculture and these values, however, may be
breaking down in police departments today due to
increased diversity among officers, police unions’ formalization of grievance processes, and the threat of
civil litigation when covering up for other officers.
Evidence exists that the U.S. public believes to a
great extent that our police are good, are ethical, and
do the right thing. Although the public has less confidence in all institutions than they did in past years,
the police ranked third in a recent poll on public trust,
with 57 percent of respondents rating the police either
very high or high in honesty and ethical standards.
The two institutions ranking higher were the military
with 76 percent and small business with 65 percent.
Only 10 percent had confidence in Congress (ranking
it lowest) and only 22 percent in big business.5
In a report prepared by the Administration of
Justice Program at George Mason University for
the IACP in October 2001, the authors found that
not only do the police consistently rank among the
institutions and occupations in which the public
expresses the highest confidence and trust, but also
most citizens are satisfied with police service in their
own neighborhoods. Interestingly, most citizens
have not had face-to-face contact with police, and
therefore their opinions are based primarily on secondhand information and media accounts.6
In a sad turn of events, this respect, support,
and caring for police officers was painfully obvious
in late 2009 when the state of Washington had six
police officers murdered within weeks. During the
funerals, massive numbers of citizens attended the
services, lined the procession route, and donated
money to show their support for the officers putting
9781305724860, An Introduction to Policing, Eighth Edition, Dempsey/Forst – © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
CHAPTER 8
their lives on the line every day for the community.
Most of these community members did not know
the officers but felt it was important to show support
for law enforcement, stand up for what was right,
and share the message with their children. The emotion evident in these citizens’ faces and voices was
touching, and police officers were humbled by the
love and support their community showed them.
The Dilemma of Law
Versus Order
Police corruption and police brutality have always
been part of policing. The names, places,M
and times
change, but corruption and brutality remain. The
I order in
role of the police in maintaining law and
U.S. society has always contained an inherent
L conflict.7 It would be very easy to maintain law and order
E and
by ensuring that our cops were bigger, meaner,
tougher than our criminals, and by letting
Sthe cops
just beat up all the criminals to ensure a safe society.
Of course, we cannot do that. We must have, our police
comply with the same laws they are paid to enforce.
Police officers face ethical dilemmas every day.
S using
They make difficult decisions on a daily basis
discretion. Every situation is different, and
H circumstances surrounding an incident may determine
A
whether an arrest is made. Officers have to weigh
YOU ARE
THERE
1931
1967
1968
1973
N
N
O
National Commissions Overseeing
the Police
N
National Commission on Law
Observance and Enforcement
(Wickersham Commission)
1
President’s Commission on Law 9
Enforcement and Administration of
0
Justice
9 Civil
National Advisory Commission on
Disorders (Kerner Commission) T
National Advisory Commission on
S
Criminal Justice Standards and Goals
1982
POLICE ETHICS AND POLICE DEVIANCE
229
many variables and sometimes contemplate accomplishing the most good for the greatest number of
people. Whenever they do this, they are open to
questions and criticism. If they consider the wrong
factors (race, ability to gain influence, payoffs) in
making these decisions, they may be on the slippery
slope to corruption. The slippery slope concept suggests that when people begin to deviate, they do it in
small ways, but once they have deviated, they begin
to slide down a slope that leads to greater and more
pronounced types of deviance. Therefore, there is no
such thing as “minor” unethical behavior.8
Review of the Police
Possibly because of the dilemma of law versus order,
the police are constantly under review by government
agencies, including federal, state, and local agencies; the courts; academics; the media; and the general public. Numerous national commissions have
looked into the operations of the police. Among the
most noteworthy were the National Commission
on Law Observance and Enforcement, more popularly known as the Wickersham Commission (1931);
the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement
and Administration of Justice (1967); the National
Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly
referred to as the Kerner Commission (1968); the
National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice
Standards and Goals (1973); and the Commission on
Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (1982).9
In addition to the national commissions, state
and local commissions, panels, and hearings have
looked into the behavior and operations of the police.
The most notable was the Knapp Commission to
Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption in
New York City, commonly known as the Knapp
Commission.10 The Knapp Commission was created
in 1970 by New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay in
response to a series of articles in the New York Times
detailing organized, widespread police corruption
in New York City. The Knapp Commission held
public hearings, and its findings caused widespread
changes in the policies and operations of the New
York City Police Department (NYPD).
Commission on Accreditation for Law
Enforcement Agencies
© 2016 Cengage Learning ®
Knapp Commission Commission created in 1970 to investigate allegations of widespread, organized corruption in the New
York City Police Department.
9781305724860, An Introduction to Policing, Eighth Edition, Dempsey/Forst – © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
230
PART 2
THE PERSONAL SIDE OF POLICING
YOU ARE
THERE
The Knapp Commission Discovers Corruption
The Knapp Commission was created in 1970 by New
York City Mayor John V. Lindsay in response to allegations brought by New York City police officers
Frank Serpico and David Durk of widespread corruption in the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
These allegations were detailed in several articles in
the New York Times and received national attention.
The hearings conducted by the commission also
received national attention in the media. The committee’s final report was issued in 1972, and its findings were responsible for widespread changes in the
policies and operations of the NYPD.
M
The types of corruption in the NYPD discovered
by the Knapp Commission through its hearings, invesI
tigations, and informants were so many and so varied
L
that they could fill volumes. The Knapp Commission
discovered corruption in the following areas:
E
• Gambling. Officers assigned to plainclothes
S
(antigambling) units received regular monthly
payments from the operators of illegal book-,
making, policy, and other gambling operations.
The regular monthly payments were called “the
S
pad.” Other payments that involved one-timeonly payments were called “scores.”
H
• Narcotics. Officers assigned to narcotics units
extorted money and other bribes, including A
drugs, from drug addicts and dealers. The N
officers also conducted illegal wiretaps and used
N
other unlawful investigatory techniques. In addition, officers engaged in flaking people (claiming
O
someone was in possession of narcotics when
N
he or she was not—the drugs used for evidence
were from the officer’s own supply) and padding
arrests (similar to flaking, but involving adding
1
enough extra narcotics, or felony weight, to the
9
defendant’s total to raise the charge to a felony).
• Prostitution. Officers involved in plainclothes units
0
maintained pads and received scores from houses
of prostitution, prostitute bars, and prostitutes.9
T
• Construction. Uniformed officers received payoffs
from contractors who violated city regulations or
S
who did not possess proper licenses and permits.
• Bars. Officers received payoffs from licensed and
unlicensed bars to overlook crimes and violations.
• Sabbath law. Officers received payoffs from
food store owners to allow the owners to
•
•
•
•
•
•
violate the Sabbath law, a former New York
City law that required certain food stores—such
as delicatessens, groceries, and bodegas—to
close down on Sundays.
Parking and traffic. Officers received payoffs
from motorists who wanted to avoid traffic
summonses, as well as from business establishments to discourage officers from issuing
summonses for illegal parking in front of their
businesses.
Retrieving seized automobiles from the police.
Officers at city automobile storage yards
received payments from owners to retrieve their
automobiles.
Intradepartmental payments. Certain officers
received payments for doing paperwork for
other officers and for temporary assignments,
permanent assignments, and medical discharges.
Sale of information. Officers received payments
for the sale of confidential police information to
criminals and private investigation firms.
Gratuities. Officers received free meals, drinks,
hotel rooms, merchandise, Christmas payments,
and other gifts and tips for services rendered.
Miscellaneous. Officers received payments from
fortune-tellers, loan sharks, automobile theft
rings, hijackers, and peddlers. Officers stole
money and property from dead bodies (DOAs)
and their apartments. They burglarized stores
and other premises.
The Knapp Commission’s report distinguished
between two types of corrupt officers: grass-eaters
and meat-eaters. Grass-eating, the most common form
of police deviance, was described as illegitimate activity that occurs from time to time in the normal course
of police work, such as taking small bribes or relatively
minor services offered by citizens seeking to avoid
arrest or to get special police services. Meat-eating,
in contrast, was a much more serious form of corruption involving the active seeking of illicit moneymaking opportunities. Meat-eaters solicited bribes through
threat or intimidation, whereas grass-eaters made the
simpler mistak…
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