Police Corruption In The United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Police Corruption In The United States - Essay Example Police corruption acts are increasing with the passage of time and everyday we comprehend and share our views regarding police unlawful acts, what is published in the newspaper. "In New Orleans, 11 police officers were convicted of accepting nearly $100,000 from undercover agents to protect a cocaine supply warehouse containing 286 pounds of cocaine. The undercover portion of the investigation was terminated when a witness was killed under orders from a New Orleans police officer." (General Accounting Office, Report to the Honorable Charles B. Rangel). Police departments participating in the five-year study were drawn from a pool of more than 4,000 police departments throughout the United States. Only sixty-nine supplied the necessary personality, background, and offense data and met all of the prerequisites for inclusion in the study (each had to administer a personality test to applicants and had to have had at least one incident where a screened officer engaged in a substantiated corrupt act, for example). Overall, the study examined 439 officers who had engaged in corrupt acts (such as bribes and information breaches) and 439 who had not. Police corruption exists in two forms: Internal corruption and External Corruption. Internal corruption refers to all those crimes, which are held within the boundaries of the police department, i.e., corruption that resides among policemen whereas External corruption escorts to those unlawful acts that apprehend police dealings with the public. Example of an Internal crime can be any officer who is involved in drug or cocaine violence along with other officers or staff or any officer who has taken excessive advantage over the authority given to him by harassing one of his colleague or member. A 1998 report by the General Accounting Office states, "The most commonly identified pattern of drug-related police corruption involved small groups of officers who protected and assisted each other in criminal activities, rather than the traditional patterns of non-drug-related police corruption that involved just a few isolated individuals or systemic corruption pervading an entire police department or precinct." (General Accounting Office, Report to the Honorable Charles B. Rangel) When we talk about external corruption, it is obvious to do something with public prosecution and it is a widespread predicament often found in our everyday lives. Example can be any police officer (or civilian) found engaged in the persuasion of common public. Like I have often observed in New York City, some cops take unnecessary advantage of wearing a five star badge uniform. As an example of police corruption, the GAO cites Philadelphia, where "Since 1995, 10 police officers from Philadelphia's 39th District have been charged with planting drugs on suspects, shaking down drug dealers for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and breaking into homes to steal drugs and cash." (General Accoun