Second Essay for AJ 101
Krystal Lamas
Victor Valley Community College
Author Note
This paper was prepared for AJ 101 for Mr. Ronald M. Field .M.A.
Abstract
Police corruption is a complex issue. Police corruption or the abuse of authority by a police officer, acting officially to fulfill personal needs or wants, is a growing problem in the United States today. Things such as an Internal Affairs department, a strong leadership organization, and community support are just a few considerations in the prevention of police corruption. Controlling corruption from the departmental level requires a strong leadership organization, because corruption can take place anywhere from the patrol officer to the chief. The top administrator must make it clear from the start that he and the other members of the department are against any form of corrupt activity, and that it will not be tolerated in any way, shape, or form. So there are ways to prevent police corruption from happening.
An investigation of a local newspaper or any police-related edited in an urban city during any given week would most likely have an article about a police officer that got caught committing some kind of corrupt act. Police corruption has increased with the illegal cocaine trade, with officers acting alone or in-groups to steal money from dealers or distribute cocaine themselves. Large groups of corrupt police have been caught in New York, New Orleans, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, as well as many other cities. Corruption within police departments falls into 2 basic ranks, external corruption and internal corruption. Corruption in policing is usually viewed as the mistreatment of authority by police officer acting formally to fulfill their personal needs or wants.
For a corrupt act to occur, three distinct elements of police corruption must be present simultaneously: 1) Mishandling of authority, 2) Mishandling of official capacity, and 3) Mishandling of personal