ipl-logo

Arguments Against Police Misconduct

1093 Words5 Pages

Laws and regulations have been put in place to protect citizen’s constitutional rights. Laws such as Federal law 42 U.S.C. 14141. This federal law protects citizens from police misconduct. Citing it is unlawful for an officer to participate in any behavior that strips a person of their constitutional rights. This includes excessive use of force, discriminatory harassment, coercive sexual conduct, unlawful searches, and false arrests. What happens when someone refuses to tolerate what they feel is corruption or officer misconduct? Whether a fellow law enforcement officer or a non-sworn individual reports the unlawful conduct, they are deemed a whistle-blower. A whistle-blower is someone who reports any information or illegal activity within …show more content…

Other reason fellow law enforcement officers fail to report corruption or misconduct is out of fear of retaliation, the long-standing tradition of backing the blue line, brotherhood, and any consequences that may follow such as being shunned, losing friends within the department, and fear of losing cover units when needed. Perhaps one of the most famous whistle-blowers of modern times is Francesco “Frank” Serpico. Serpico joined the New York Police Department in 1959. Serpico made several attempts to report the misconduct displayed by law enforcement officers within the department, however, he was told to just “go along” with it. After realizing his complaints within the agency were not going anywhere, Serpico decided to take his story to the New York Times. In 1970, the New York Times printed an article about corrupt law enforcement officers. The article specified the corrupt officers were making over one million dollars a year in bribes and payoffs from gangsters and drug dealers. In 1970 Serpico became the first New York Police Department officer to ever testify against his fellow

Show More
Related

  • Brotherhood Of Corruption, Walking With The Devil, By Cyndi Banks

    1053 Words  | 5 Pages

    This book begins immediately with some shocking statistics that will allow the police officers in the ethics course to see just how prevalent the code of silence can be. Quinn reports, “only 39 percent of police officers believe fellow officers will report serious criminal violations involving the abuse of authority,” and “52,4 percent of police officers agreed, “It is not unusual for a police officer to turn a blind eye to improper conduct by other officers” (4). The book goes on to discuss why officers partake in the code of silence. A scenario given by the author describes an officer who reports to a domestic violence call and ends up being beaten by the offender. The offender would have killed the officer if it were not for the back up that arrived.

    Read More

  • How Did Frank Serpico Create Corruption In The New York City Police Department

    1051 Words  | 5 Pages

    As New York City crept closer to bankruptcy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the New York City Police Department along with many other major city organizations started to partake in bribery, embezzlement, blackmail, and other forms of corruption. With many officers benefitting from this extortion, the chances of someone exposing this corruption seemed extremely miniscule. The corruption finally came to light when officer and detective Frank Serpico disclosed the rampant crime of the NYPD in 1971. While NYPD officials were not happy with the whistleblowing, it led to an abundance of praise for Serpico from outsiders and even a film made about him. After experiencing illegal actions of the NYPD firsthand and a suspicious near death experience with a criminal, Frank Serpico exposed the New York City Police Department’s graft of the 1960s and 1970s and continues to speak on issues concerning the NYPD today.

    Read More

  • Steven Davis Code Of Ethics Essay

    473 Words  | 2 Pages

    Working in the field of law enforcement and being ethically sound is important. It is important within our professional career that we are able to maintain a standard that doesn’t cross any ethical lines. Even in our academic we have to hold ourselves to an ethical standard, because we are trusted to do what is right. If we violate the academic integrity it put a mark on our ability to be trusted. Just as Dr. Steven Davis stated if someone is will to cheap to get ahead how can they be trusted

    Read More

  • Justin Hopson Case Summary

    883 Words  | 4 Pages

    Certainly, he expected to find it readily applied in his position with the state police, who exercise authority, and are sworn to uphold the law. Hopson’s expectation for this was shattered as a rookie trooper, and as a result, he experienced moral stress. Geuras and Garofalo (2011) state, “...moral quandaries cannot be denied. At the same time, however, organizational structures and cultures, expectations and reward systems, often tend to ignore or invalidate moral stress, leaving conflicted individuals with a Hobson’s choice: silence or whistleblowing” (p. 134). Hopson made the choice to remain congruent with values that aligned with ethical behavior and eventually elected to become a whistleblower; he could not remain

    Read More

  • Police Use Of Force

    1006 Words  | 5 Pages

    It can be hard to prosecute a cop for these actions due to the constant state of threat a cop’s life is at while doing their job and the unpredictability of their job. An example of an case where the police’s use of force were questioned was the Wardlaw v. Pickett case. In this case a man named, William C. Wardlaw decided to sue the United States Deputy Marshals, William Pickett and Albert Crew. Wardlaw claimed that the two violated his constitutional rights by using excessive force on him and falsing arresting and prosecuting him.

    Read More

  • Frank Serpico Film Analysis

    710 Words  | 3 Pages

    Payoffs and kickbacks were excessive in the police department after Frank Serpico entered the New York police force in 1960, especially

    Read More

  • How Chicago Mafia Impacted The 1900s Culture And Society Of America

    1246 Words  | 5 Pages

    About 40% of all Chicago policemen's death is from the 1900s era, as stated by the Chicago Police Department. Notably, men of the mafia had access to multiple assets to evade the law. According to Humbert in an article about the mafia, he states “The professional criminal knew, or had ready access to lawyers who knew, the nuances of the law and how to avoid retribution for antisocial actions. He had money and connections with politicians, as well as with corrupt policemen, who would delay or circumvent efforts to bring him to justice. He also could arrange intimidation of witnesses and victims so that they kept silent” (Humbert).

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Whistleblowing

    1089 Words  | 5 Pages

    Whistle-blowing Introduction Whistle-blowing is the act taken by an employee or former employee of disclosing what he believes to be unethical or illegal behaviour taken by his employer. There are two ways in which a person can disclose information. It can be done by internal whistle-blowing or external whistle-blowing. Internal whistle-blowing would be considered when an employee discloses unethical or illegal behaviour to higher management while external whistle-blowing would be when the information was disclosed to the public. The duty to be a whistle-blower over rides the duty that you have to your client or employer.

    Read More

  • Ethical Cases Of The 1992 Los Angeles Riots

    970 Words  | 4 Pages

    A department is judged by the one “rotten apple” (Pollock, 2016) an example of this is, if one cop is taking kickbacks, then the whole department is viewed as being corrupt. If the employees do not agree with the unethical decisions of their leaders then they can be addressed through a commission

    Read More

  • Crime In New York

    993 Words  | 4 Pages

    Around 1894 corruption was detected, and the NYPD and New York State Senate held investigation. They found that police officer was being hired out to perform jobs for the citizens. Some of the citizens that were commonly hiring out these officers were gamblers and saloon owners. These jobs would pay as high as $15,000 ($400,000 today). Many of the police offers began to do work for gangs as well.

    Read More

  • Police Corruption In The Seven Five

    1067 Words  | 5 Pages

    Police corruption has been the largest ongoing problem in the United States criminal justice system. In the documentary, “The Seven Five” directed by Tiller Russell, he sheds light onto the story of former NYPD officer Michael Dowd and how he and his prescient were involved in committing numerous crimes, including running their own cocaine ring while on the job in the 1980’s, early 90’s. Per the Criminal Law- Lawyer Source, police corruption is defined as “the abuse of police authority for personal gain or to gain advantage for the police organization. Police corruption can take the form of a variety of criminal activities ranging from actual commission of serious criminal (i.e. drug trafficking and money laundering) to the instances where

    Read More

  • Essay On Police Brutality

    949 Words  | 4 Pages

    Police brutality is when a police officer uses any type of force on someone that exceeds the necessary amount to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The force doesn’t have to just be physical, it can also be physiological harm through intimidation tactics. So in simpler terms, police brutality is when a police officer uses more force then what they should use to stop a person or animal. There is some ways that we can help prevent police brutality, one of the ways we can help prevent it is by giving police better training in a nonviolent way. This is especially important when dealing with violent animals.

    Read More

  • Whistleblower Ethical Dilemmas

    1885 Words  | 8 Pages

    Introduction According to Alford (2007), a whistleblower is one who speaks out against illegal or unethical practices in school or in the organization where he or she works. Whistle-blowing, is an essential factor for pin-pointing and eradicating unethical activities in most organization set ups (Brown, 2008). According to Sawyer, Johnson and Holub (2010), most individuals disregard the idea of whistle-blowing because they fear that they will be avoided and could end up losing their job careers and also their good names. When an individual is torn between two or more deeds and have virtuous reasons for choosing each action, this is regarded to as an ethical dilemma.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Police Brutality

    1456 Words  | 6 Pages

    Brianna Marquez English III - 5th period May 22, 2018 Being bad & getting exposed Police brutality and the system being corrupt has always been an issue in America, but lately it’s been brought up more and more in the media. The system hasn 't always revealed the full truth about stories, but now with technology it has become a concern that the police are covering up things that we should know. Recently there have been more protests and riots about officers not doing their jobs and they are going out of there way to hurt victims.

    Read More

  • Police Corruption Essay

    950 Words  | 4 Pages

    Corruption is a type of misconduct and offense in which the police break their contract and oath by abusing their power for personal gain or even for departmental gain. Examples of types of police corruption a. Bribery- police officer receives bribes so that they cannot write tickets for people who have gone against the law for example, from prostitutes and gambling, bribery does not only affect the united states but its world spread, examples of other countries with highest percentage of bribery are Pakistan and France. b. Assault on suspects- police officers use excessive force on suspects leading to injuries and at times suspects end up dying in their custody. Some police officers have been charged with murder of suspects in their custody.

    Read More

More about Arguments Against Police Misconduct

Open Document