Criminal Justice
Police misconduct can be lead back to the time when the police institutions got established. it was contrary to Robert peel’s desire for well-mannered police forces. Police misconducts have been evolving over the time. During the earlier days the main form of police misconduct involved the police operations and practices for example, the third degree unlike in the recent days where police corruption is the main form which have involved some criminal activities that are against the law.
To solve police misconducts there was formation of commissions. They were tools to improve the weakened police agencies which were formed at local or federal levels. The commissions entailed lawyers and some members of the community. Lexow was the first commission (1894) which went into some misconducts by the police officers in New york after estimated 30 to 40 years of experienced police scandals. Some of the roles of the commissions included examining the police wrong doings and bringing up prospective reforms. Are all police misconducts illegal law activities,?
Police crime is among several police misconduct experienced globally. is where police officers commit crimes in their line of duty . For instance some officers brutality handles suspected criminals and harasses them during arrests . At times this happens due to the police mentality of their superiority over the common citizens. They take advantage of having lethal weapons like guns to oppress the innocent civilians.
Also, the abuse of authority is another form of police misconduct . It occurs when police officers perform any activity that fail to comply with the human rights or physically harm the civilians. They are mainly three forms of abuse of authority ;there is physical abuse of authority which involves forceful engagement of police officers to get information that they need, psychological abuse includes use of threats and abusive language hence inflicting emotional pain and lastly the legal abuse of authority. Police are motivated to extract useful information from individuals to use it in solving crimes.
Occupational Deviance is where by officers violate the organizational good conducts and policies. These misconducts categorized into two; legal and illegal. For instance an officer can use drug like cigarettes which is not illegal but it is unethical. Still, whenever they involve themselves in sexual assault at work this is a illegal misconduct.it happens for example ,when the prison guards sexually involves themselves with the prisoners. Mostly an officer is motivated by the need for their pleasures or gains. That is breaking the rules set for any officer to follow.
The fourth form of police misconduct is corruption. Corruption is the misuse of police power by performing malpractices in their duty fields to gain personally. There are internal and external types of corruption activities . Internal activities includes practices done within the working stations between the employees like unhealthy relationship among workers .They can either be voluntary or involuntary agreements .
External factors includes activities between the officers and the civilians. External factors includes use of bribes and extortion. Bribery is the act giving or receiving items of value to influence a person while extortion is the act of threatening somebody to acquire a piece of value . Other external factors includes kickbacks and police theft. Officers practice corruption to gain several objectives like increase their income terms , greed for power or greed for resources , results of finding themselves in compromising situations
They are several advantages and disadvantages of Police Misconducts. Among the advantages include changes and putting back the confidence of citizens. Disadvantages are less safety measures within the countries, criminals tend to be protected hence they don’t face trials , low levels of moral values among the officers , additional misconducts among others.
In my opinion , Corruption can cause more harm and pull back the effectiveness and efficiency of public policing. Public policing is the services that are offered at local and federal levels by the officers. Corruption will lead to the oppression of the people both the civilians and the officers. Besides, it will give criminals chance to walk freely from their crimes hence high chances of committing more crimes in the community. On the other hand the courts might end up prosecuting innocent or the wrong people . Illegal activities will increase as increase in the society like drugs , theft , robbery, sexual harassment among others.
It will ruin the moral values in the community and torture the innocent. When officers are bribed by law breakers in order not to put them behind bars and set them free , they run back to the society and this leads back to the issue of insecurity. There are some of the police misconducts like corruption are cause harm to the effectiveness and quality of public policing.
In conclusion police misconducts can be minimized through various interventions; Education to both civilians and the police officers , Prosecuting police officers who break the law , improving the relationship between police officers and citizens and employing professional police officers . fair remuneration among police officers, improving handling of complains by the commissions, improve the procedures of investigations and supervision , and proper resource allocation among the police officers. Minimizing Police misconduct can be conducted and be effective if there is a joint and mutual cooperation from both the officers and the civilians.