Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in

Criminal Justice 8th Edition Pollock

Solutions Manual
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CHAPTER 7 – Police Corruption and Misconduct

CHAPTER 7 CONTENTS

A Worldwide Problem
Types of Corruption
Explanations of Deviance
Conclusion

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Describe the types of police corruption.
2. Describe the ethical arguments for and against gratuities.
3. Explain and give examples of graft and other forms of police corruption.
4. Provide the three types of explanations of police misconduct, with examples of each.
5. Describe the ways to reduce corruption and misconduct.

CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter describes some of the unethical behaviors of police officers. It is important, of course, to
emphasize that the vast majority of police officers are honest and hardworking. However, the important
question is why do good officers protect bad officers? The chapter also briefly describes international
examples of corruption and presents the standard explanations for police corruption.

CHAPTER OUTLINE
A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM
▪ Baksheesh is a euphemism for graft and is endemic in many developing countries.
▪ Other countries all have their own scandals.
▪ International Measures of Corruption
o Transparency International ranks ninety-one countries, measuring abuse of public office
for private gain.
▪ Highest scores for honesty are for New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden
▪ Lowest are for Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, and Somalia.
▪ United States is not in the top 20 for honesty

TYPES OF CORRUPTION
▪ Corruption has been described as “acting on opportunities, created by virtue of one’s authority, for
personal gain at the expense of the public one is authorized to serve”.
▪ 1973 - the Knapp Commission (grass eaters and meat eaters).
▪ Barker and Carter’s typology includes:
o Physical abuse – excessive force, physical harassment.
o Psychological abuse – disrespect, harassment, ridicule, excessive stops, intimidation.
o Legal abuse – unlawful searches or seizures, manufacturing evidence, etc.
▪ It is an insult to law enforcement officers to equate crime and ethical transgressions.
▪ Fyfe and Kane discuss police crime, police corruption, and abuse of power.
▪ Gratuities are items of value received by an individual because of his or her role or position, rather
 than because of a personal relationship with the giver.
o Prenzler showed that two-thirds of respondents agreed it was acceptable for police to take
coffee; 76 percent were opposed to regular free coffee, cold drinks, or discounted meals
when on duty.
o Kania believes that gratuities are the building blocks of positive social relationships
between our police and the public (problem when the intent of the giver is to give in
exchange for some future service).
o The only problem, according to Kania, is when either or both the giver and taker have
impure intent.
o Another issue that Kania alludes to but doesn’t clearly articulate is that a pattern of
gratuities changes what would have been a formal relationship into a personal, informal
one.
o Opposing arguments include:
▪ Police are professionals and professionals don’t take gratuities.
▪ Gratuities are incipient corruptors because people expect different treatment.
▪ Gratuities are an abuse of authority and create a sense of entitlement.
▪ Gratuities add up to substantial amounts of money and can comprise as high as
30 percent of an officer’s income (unjust enrichment).
▪ Gratuities can be the beginning of more serious forms of corruption (slippery
slope).
▪ It is contrary to democratic ideals since it is a type of fee-for-service of public
functions.
▪ It creates a public perception that police are corrupt.
▪ Can lead to unequal protection and treatment
o Kania’s counter-arguments include
▪ Other professionals accept gratuities.
▪ There is nothing wrong with more frequent users of police services “paying”
extra.
▪ “No gratuity” rules are tools of playing “gotcha” that erode morale.
▪ That educators and academics tend to distort the seriousness of gratuities.
▪ Professional courtesy – the practice of not ticketing an officer who is stopped for speeding or for
other driving violations.
o Justifications for not ticketing other officers are diverse and creative. One troubling
aspect of professional courtesy for traffic offenses is that the practice has a tendency to
bleed over into other forms of misconduct.
▪ On-Duty Use of Drugs and Alcohol:
o Research found that up to 20 percent of officers in one city used marijuana and other
drugs while on duty (figure too high?).
o 8 percent of employees reported drug use and, only 3 percent of all workers in a
“protective services” category reported drug use.
o Elements of police work (especially undercover work) that lead to drug use include
▪ The exposure to a criminal element.
▪ Relative freedom from supervision.
▪ The uncontrolled availability of contraband.
o Police officers, as many other types of employees, have been subject to drug testing.
o Officers have some due process rights, however, and they must be notified of the policies
and procedures involved in the agency’s drug testing, have access to the findings, and
have some sort of appeal process before sanctions are taken.
o Fyfe and Kane: most common reason for termination among NYPD was failed drug test.
o About 8 percent of those in “protective services” occupations (which would include
police officers) reported heavy alcohol use.
o Barker and Carter (1994) reported that 8 percent of officers reported drinking alcohol on
duty.
▪ Graft refers to any exploitation of one’s role, such as accepting bribes or protection money.
o Examples include taking bribes for changing testimony or “forgetting,” looking the other
way when discovering an illegal act, or taking kickbacks from a lawyer or tow truck
 company for sending them business.
o Officers in the United States rated bribery as the second most serious offense. Only theft
from a crime scene was rated as more serious.
▪ Sexual Misconduct:
o Amnesty International has documented widespread mistreatment of women by police
across the world.
o Kraska and Kappeler‘s continuum of sexual invasion (from least to most serious) is as
follows:
▪ viewing a victim’s photos or videos for prurient purposes
▪ field strip searches
▪ custodial strip searches
▪ illegal detentions
▪ deception to gain sex
▪ provision of services for sex
▪ sexual harassment
▪ sexual contact
▪ sexual assault
▪ rape
o Sapp’s inventory of sexual misconduct includes
▪ Non-sexual contacts that are sexually motivated (non-valid traffic stops).
▪ Voyeurism (i.e., patrolling lover’s lanes to watch sexual activity).
▪ Contact with crime victims (excessive call-backs that are not necessary for
investigative purposes).
▪ Contact with offenders (sexual demands or inappropriate frisks).
▪ Contacts with juvenile offenders (sexual harassment and sexual contact).
▪ Sexual shakedowns (demanding sex from prostitutes or homeless).
▪ Citizen-initiated sexual contact (officer is approached by citizen because of their
officer status).
o Prostitutes and homeless women are extremely vulnerable populations to sexual extortion
by police officers. The power differential makes consent extremely problematic.
o 70 percent of female officers reported being sexually harassed by other police officers
▪ Criminal Cops:
o “Miami River Rats” in the 1980s
o Chicago - 1996, seven Chicago cops were indicted for conspiracy to commit robbery and
extortion for shaking down undercover agents they thought were drug dealers.
o Indianapolis police officers were recently indicted and convicted for a theft ring
o New Orleans police officers in the past have been linked to drugs, robberies, and even
murder
o Prince George’s County, Maryland, had just been released from a federal consent decree
that it had been under for seven years for civil rights violations, but anew investigation
led to evidence that police officers had provided security and assistance to drug dealers
o A trio of Boston police officers was prosecuted and convicted in 2008 of conspiracy and
other crimes associated with drug trafficking
o Minnesota – in 2009, a narcotics strike force involving 34 officers from 13 agencies was
the target of suspicion
o Missouri, police officer was sentenced to three months in prison after admitting to the
theft of cash found in a drug search.
o North Carolina – two officers were indicted for embezzlement, obtaining property by
false pretences, breaking and entering, second degree kidnapping, and obstruction of
justice
o The “Buddy Boys” in New York in the early 1980s
o Tulsa police officers and an ATF agent have been the subject of an intensive state and
federal probe of alleged crimes and misconduct
o A Philadelphia narcotics squad became the subject of an internal investigation and FBI
probe when Latino bodega owners complained to city and police department officials
about a pattern of raids where officers targeted Latino stores for narcotics raids, turned
 off the security cameras, and then (allegedly) stole money and goods from the stores

EXPLANATIONS OF DEVIANCE
▪ Explanations of corruption can be described as
o Individual (rotten apple; bad recruiting, moral career).
▪ Fyfe and Kane looked at gender, age, education, race, military, others.
o Organizational (bad management; noble cause)
▪ Gilmartin and Harris “Continuum of compromise” discussed why some officers
become compromised
▪ Trautman “Corruption Continuum” discussed how organizational leaders
contribute to the unethical actions of their employees
o Societal (public demands and willingness to tolerate extra legal means)
▪ Rationalizations used by some police when they take bribes or protection money
from prostitutes or drug dealers are made easier by the public’s tolerant stance
toward certain areas of vice

REDUCING POLICE CORRUPTION

▪ There are several authors who have proposed comprehensive lists of tactics to reduce police
misconduct and corruption.
▪ Metz suggest several ways in which police administrators can encourage ethical conduct among
officers:
o Set realistic goals and objectives for the department
o Provide ethical leadership
o Provide a written code of ethics
o Provide a whistleblowing procedure that ensures fair treatment of all parties
o Provide training n law enforcement ethics
▪ “Rotten Apple” responses – include improving screening (e.g., background checks, drug tests,
etc.), education and training, integrity testing (which occurs when a police officer is placed in a
position where he or she might be tempted to break a rule or a law and monitored to see what he or
she will do), and early warning or audit systems.
▪ “Rotten Barrel” responses – include internal affairs model (a review procedure in which police
investigators receive and investigate complaints and resolve the investigations internally), civilian
review/complaint boards model (the use of an outside agency or board that includes citizens and
monitors and/or investigates misconduct complaints against police), changing the culture, and
ethical leadership.
o Two cases studies, one in New York and another one in Los Angeles, illustrate the
problem when administrators attempt to cover up wrongdoing by individual officers. In
both cases, the investigator who attempted to identify and expose corruption was met
with resistance from the administration.

CONCLUSION
▪ In this chapter, the author reviewed the range of deviant behaviors in law enforcement.
▪ Reasons for law enforcement deviance can be categorized into individual explanations,
organizational explanations, and societal explanations.
▪ A wide range of suggestions for combating police corruption were also examined.

ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Situation 1
You are a rookie police officer on your first patrol. The older, experienced officer tells you that the
restaurant on the corner likes to have you guys around, so they always give free meals. Your partner orders
steak, potatoes, and all the trimmings. What are you going to do? What if it were just coffee at a
convenience store? What if the owner refused to take your money at the cash register?
Ethical Judgment: Depends on the department’s rulebook (often rulebooks specifically exclude coffee from
prohibition).

The analysis will assume there is a policy prohibiting gratuities.

Moral Rules: Follow the law (and rules of one’s organization).

Don’t use people or one’s profession for inappropriate personal gain.
Don’t take something for nothing.

Ethical system: Ethical formalism would base the decision on duty. One’s duty is to follow the rule. Also,
the second part of the categorical imperative states: treat each person as a means and not as an end. The
moral rules are consistent with ethical formalism.

Utilitarianism would also condemn the practice of ignoring organizational rules. Even though it might
result in a net utility for the officers and for the business owners, the department suffers from the hypocrisy
and the community suffers from (perhaps) unequal patrol coverage and a lowered perception of police.

The situation is complex because it seems so innocuous and the officer who refuses to take gratuities looks
like a jerk. Officers might deal with the situation in various ways – some leave a tip equal to the price of the
meal; some send the money to the restaurant after the fact. Dealing with the partner is a different problem:
Some officers take their lunch with them to avoid the situation; Some make it clear before the situation that
they don’t accept free lunches and deal with the partner’s reaction. Classroom discussions are most
interesting when there are police officers and restaurant workers in the same class. In this situation each is
able to hear the other’s perspective in the neutral setting.

CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENTS
1. Have students do a little informal research on local policies regarding gratuities.

2. Have students conduct newspaper search of ethical scandals in law enforcement.

3. Divide students into small groups, provide them with more detailed information (e.g., newspaper
articles) about one or more of the cases discussed in this chapter and have them discuss the ethical
dilemmas and prepare a set of arguments for and against the behaviors included in these cases.

4. Watch the movie “Serpico” and discuss the causes of corruption displayed in the movie and consider
how such a situation can be prevented.

EXERCISE

Acceptable Gratuities?
Indicate which of the following—if offered freely with no apparent exchange expected—are ethically
acceptable. Then compare your answers with others.
free coffee only on duty on or off duty
free gum or candy only on duty on or off duty
half-price meal only on duty on or off duty
free meal only on duty on or off duty
free dry cleaning only for uniform unrestricted
free admission to clubs n/a off duty
free lottery tickets only on duty on or off duty
expensive merchandise only on duty on or off duty
any of the above to department as a
whole
If you decided that free coffee, meals, and other items are acceptable because they don’t cost much, how
do you explain the fact that, over time, the cost of the coffee or meals consumed by police officers would
equal that of the more expensive items?