Law Enforcement Exam 4

The three basic strategies for controlling police discretion

Abolishing it, Enhancing the professional judgment of police officers, and regulating it through written policies.

Discretion

An official action by a criminal justice official based on that individual's judgment about the best course of action

Rotten apple theory

Describes a situation where only a few officers are independently engaged in corrupt acts.

Myth of full enforcement

First, the police want to maintain a public image of authority. Second, if the police admitted that they do not arrest everyone, it would raise serious questions about equal protection of the law. Third, to admit that the police exercise discretion in enforcing certain laws would raise questions about all police policies and how departments determine what their enforcement policies are. Fourth, most states have laws requiring the police to enforce all laws fully. Finally, denying that discretion exists allows supervisors to avoid closely reviewing officer behavior and developing performance expectations.

Low visibility work

Hidden from public view, police officers have tremendous opportunity to choose whatever course of action they prefer, and this work environment creates the opportunity for using and potentially abusing discretion

Two basic approaches to control corruption within an organization

Internal and External

Successful control of corruption

Internal and External approaches

Occupational subculture

Is a major factor in both creating police corruption, by initiating officers into corrupt activities, and sustaining it, by covering up corrupt activities by other officers.

Two key elements of police corruption

Misuse of authority and personal gain.

Situational factors of discretion

Seriousness of the crime, strength of the evidence, preference of the victim, relationship between victim and suspect, demeanor of the suspect, Characteristics of the victim, race, ethnicity, and gender of the citizen, characteristics of the neighborhood, characteristics of the individual officer.

External approaches to control corruption

Special investigations, Criminal prosecution, Mobilizing public opinion, Altering the external environment.

The Knapp Corruption Commission

The Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known informally as theKnapp Commission, after its chairman Whitman Knapp) was a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption within the New York City Police Department.

CRASH unit scandal

The Rampart scandal refers to widespread police corruption in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the LAPD's Rampart Division in the late 1990s. More than 70 police officers either assigned to or associated with the Rampart CRASH unit were implicated in some form of misconduct, making it one of the most widespread cases of documented police corruption in United States history, responsible for a long list of offenses including unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting of false evidence, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and the covering up of evidence of these activities.

Internal approaches to control corruption

The attitude of the chief, Rules and regulations, Managing anticorruption investigations, Investigative tactics, Cracking the blue curtain, Proactive integrity tests, Effective supervision, Rewarding the good officers, Personnel recruitment

The blue curtain of silence

The refusal of officers to testify against other officers

Positive use of discretion

The use of good judgment, efficient use of scarce police resources, individualized justice, sound public policy.

Police managers' decisions

To adopt community policing or problem-oriented policing, To give high priority to traffic law violations, To ignore minor drug offenses such as possession of small amounts of marijuana, To crack down on prostitution, To give social gambling low priority.

Patrol officers' decision in order maintenance situation

To mediate a domestic dispute rather than make an arrest, to suggest that one party to a dispute leave the premises, To refer a person to a social service agency(Alcohol, abuse treatment), To commit a mentally disturbed person to a mental health facility.

Patrol officers' decision in crime situation

To patrol an area more intensively than normal, conduct a high-speed pursuit, to stop, question, or frisk a suspect, to write a crime report, to make an arrest, to use physical or deadly force.

Pervasive organized corruption

Type 3 level of corruption: penetrates higher levels

Meat eater

Who aggressively demand favors

Rotten pocket

exists when several corrupt officers cooperate with one another.

Occupational deviance

is the "deviant behavior criminal and noncriminal committed during the course of normal work activities or committed under the guise of the police officer's authority."

Administrative rule-making

seeks to guide the exercise of police discretion through written departmental policies. What an officer must do in situations, what he or she may not do, and where an officer may properly exercise discretion

Gratuities

the most common form of police corruption; gifts or favors given to police officers, sometimes out of a sincere effort to thank the officers but often out of self-interest with an expectation of better police service. Free meals, free dry cleaning, or discounts.