Integrity In Law Enforcement

Forty two police officers from Northern Ohio were arrested on cocaine distribution charges, the largest number of officers ever arrested in a single day in United States history. Police corruption is illegal acts or commission by police officers on duty whom abuse their position to receive any type of gain for themselves or others. There are many types of corruption which includes, internal corruption where police officers bend rules/law to commission illegal acts for example destroying evidence. Selective enforcement where police officers exploit their discretion and authority, for example arresting someone and not charging them in return of cash. Active criminalities where police officers participate in serious criminal activity
Police officers with integrity must possess trust, effacement of self-interest, courage, intellectual honesty, justice and responsibility. Klockars and associates define police integrity as “the normative indication among police to resist temptation to abuse rights and privileges of their occupation.” (Ivkovic & Shelly 2008, page 60). Integrity come at a personal coast sometimes those who stand up for standards and integrity are not always well received by their colleagues as they may act and think opposite. Cases of police misconduct can seriously harm off work to establish trust and confidence between police officers and members of the community. A survey done by Carl B. Klockars, Sanja Kutujak Lvkorich and Maria R. Haberfeld found that “most officers said they would not report a fellow officer who engaged in conduct such as accepting free gifts, meals ,discounts or having minor incidents while driving under the influence of alcohol. On the other hand most police officers said they would report a colleague who stole from a burglary scene, accepted a bribe, or used excessive force.” This survey shows that police officers would lie to protect a fellow police officer and also exercise their duty onto fellow officer whom break the law. It is also possible that police officers tent to tolerate free meals, gifts and working off duty because
“nature of the police profession along with the experience of officers caused them to group together into their own subculture, which is commonly referred in the police literature as the police culture or police subculture.” .” (Micheal D. lyman, The Police and Introduction, pg. 165) This is a subculture that shapes the attitude among many police officers which make them cynical, isolated, defensive, distrustful, dogmatic and authoritarian. “ Research in policing has shown that police officers create their own culture to deal with recurring anxiety and emotional stress that is endemic to policing. Loyalty is a major part of the subculture as well, police officers rely heavily on backup by other officers in emergency situations (Micheal D. lyman, The Police and Introduction, pg. 166). It is also shown that police officers protect themselves and each other from public and non-police officer by refusing to give information on wrongdoings by fellow officers to their police supervisors or other investigating officials. This protection of a fellow police officer is termed the “blue wall of silence”. Seniors police officers may test new members of the law enforcement profession , for example, they may see how amiable recruits are to accepting gratuities, accepting small gratuities is a test of loyalty. In the corrupt subculture, fidelity becomes more important than integrity