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

The Issue of Police Misconduct - Term Paper Example Incidents 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 beginning of the 20th century, when the first attempts were made to combat it on a professional level (O'Shea and Nichols, 2003). What, exactly, can be considered police misconduct It is basically any behavior on the part of a police officer that is illegal, an obvious misuse of authority, or an effort to gain some type of material reward. Acts of misconduct generally fall within two categories: physical/emotional abuse (as described in the cases above), and the more widely studied issue of corruption. Why is police misconduct seen as being so terrible It is because they are 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 almost 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 common ways to assess corruption are through interviews, surveys, and observation (Ivkovic, 2003). Each of these methods has severe limitations and cannot be used by itself. However, when two or more of these methods are used together, there is a much better chance of getting a reliable assessment of corruption (Ivkovic, 2003). It is important to learn how to best measure 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, like gaining materially from the position, were seen to be much more serious than others, like excessive physical violence or lying to protect colleagues (Westmarland, 2005).