Criminology Opinion Paper #2

Class

Institution Affiliation

Law enforcement agencies (government) is not adequately addressing police corruption and ethical issues

According to White (1999), corruption is any behavior that abusively crossing the parameter of the power vested in an individual and illegal use of the legitimacy of authority. Police corruption involves taking bribes to allow an individual or a group of people. Unethical police conduct involves mistreating victims by planting force pieces of evidence and brutality when handling a crime victim.

Police misconduct is not a new topic of discussion since these unethical practices have been there since the begging. In his research, White (1999) looks into a case of the 1920s involving Frank Serpico; a New York police officer who falsified drug evidence. The case remained unchecked until when a new commissioner was installed which indicated the lack of an adequate monitor of police officers’ conduct (White, 1999).

The law court; a significant component in law enforcement agency, has also significantly frustrated the implementation by failing to dig deeper into the issues provided by victims of police misconduct. Furthermore, this failure has made most police officers feel untouchable and above the law. I believe the government has not done everything in its power to provide a fair environment for both police force and civilians.

Concurrently, enforcement agencies have not adequately addressed the police misconduct due to lack of independence in decision making. The prominent commissioners in the police department mostly collude with shreds of evidence to protect their units' offices creating a chain of corruption that prevent justice for the victims of police’s misconducts. Most instances have been recorded involving police planting false evidence to cover up their corruption and transfer the blame to innocent citizens.

Finally, the law enforcement agencies have failed because they have not designed appropriate training programs that teach the codes of conduct to police officers. As far as these programs may exist, they are not frequently revised to keep the police department abreast with changing codes of ethics. Training programs emphasis on maintaining the officer’s security as...