The Issue of Police Misconduct Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Issue of Police Misconduct - stipulation Paper ExampleIncidents such as these clearly show that misconduct is a far-reaching problem, affecting police departments at every level of operation (Ivkovic, 2003). In fact, it is a problem that has existed since at least the line of the 20th century, when the first attempts were made to combat it on a professional level (OShea and Nichols, 2003). What, exactly, can be considered police misconduct It is basically any behavior on the part of a police police officer that is illegal, an obvious misuse of authority, or an effort to gain some type of material reward. Acts of misconduct broadly fall within two categories physical/emotional abuse (as described in the cases above), and the more wide studied issue of corruption. Why is police misconduct seen as being so terrible It is because they atomic number 18 the ones who solve our problems for us and put the bad guys away. They are not supposed to be the bad guys themselves. However, it is most understandable that police would fall prey to these types of actions since their jobs constantly place them in situations where they are with bad guys every day, and there are obviously some opportunities for great temptation to occur (Johnson and Cox, 2004-5). Some of the most harsh ways to assess corruption are through interviews, fall outs, and observation (Ivkovic, 2003). Each of these methods has severe limitations and cannot be employ by itself. However, when two or more of these methods are used together, there is a much wagerer chance of getting a reliable assessment of corruption (Ivkovic, 2003). It is important to learn how to best whole step police corruption, and the severity of it, in order to know how to best treat the problem.Louise Westmarland (2005) used a survey to ask British police officers questions about how they viewed police corruption, unethical behavior, and breaking the rules on occasion. Certain actions, same(p) gaining materially from t he position, were seen to be much more serious than others, like excessive physical violence or lying to protect colleagues (Westmarland, 2005).