"What is police corruption?" Definition and a few examples

Essay by angelsmagUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, September 2007

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Police corruption is basically the abuse of police authority for personal or organizational gains. This paper is going to look at some of the view points and the investigations into and about police corruption. These things include money laundering, drug trafficking, or looking the other way on violations of the law. Some law enforcement officers are swayed to look the other way on certain violations of the law committed by their family and/or friends. Officers are usually persuaded by payments in forms of bribes, personal favors, or gratuities. More serious crimes of police corruption include drugs, brutality, and framing (whether they are innocent or actually guilty).

Police fraud is a complex occurrence, which is not always a simple examination. Police corruption is an issue which has and will continue to affect everyone. Whether it is law enforcement or civilians there is a definite affect on us all. Many characteristics of policing have been altered; yet one has remained the same and this one is the existence of corruption.

One could look at just about any police related publication or local newspaper and find an article about an office getting caught up in some type of corruption. There has been a dramatic increase in police corruption with the illegal trade of cocaine. Officers will act alone or in groups to distribute the drugs themselves, or steal money from dealers.

There have been many corrupt officers within the police department, however one comes to mind right away and that name is Michael Dowd. Michael Dowd was the kind of cop who gave a completely new meaning to the word moonlighting. It wasn't just any job that the 10-year veteran of the New York City force was working on the side. Dowd was a big time drug dealer. From scoring free pizza as...