Police Corruption

Essay by Good WillUniversity, Bachelor's January 2006

download word file, 1 pages 0.0

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. An examination of a local newspaper or any police-related publication 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 dramatically with the illegal drug trafficking trade, with officers acting alone or in-groups to steal money from dealers or distribute drugs themselves.

In California, where one of the worst cases of police corruption occurred, an officer was caught stealing eight pounds of cocaine from the evidence room at the police department.

On numerous occasions officers were indicted on corruption charges, including torture, murder, drug dealing and framing innocent people. This behavior is known as "rampart way". Rampart way is criminal behavior referring to a poor neighborhood in East Los Angeles. In 1999 a small town in Texas with over ten percent of its population African Americans, arrested over forty people on drug charges. After an investigation and court testimony the undercover officer in this crime quit his job and fled the town to avoid theft charges, only two of the forty convictions have been cleared.

The connection of police corruption and organized crime is clear and simple. Without police corruption it would be much harder for the organized crime to work their businesses. In a city or town, where there is no corruption what so ever, an organized crime group could not work in the same pace...