Police Deviancy And Corruption

Deviancy and corruption within police organizations has influenced public’s negative perceptions and attitudes, as well as negatively impact the social relationship between the two groups. Policing in America, was established to maintain social order by enforcing rules and laws, protecting citizens, and taking appropriate action to ensure safety and justice. Police officers are expected to exercise “power and authority” while preserving moral character, but it is not always the case. Individual morale is closely examined when police recruits are seeking a position with a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency. As mentioned by the author Kappeler, recruits are evaluated based on their ability to adapt to the 'code of practices' used
How officers prioritize, is the observation of suspects, victims, and media coverage around criminal cases that requires more attention. Most police departments will recruit and select officers based on a standard level including education, experience, and moral character and ability to make quick decisions. Once officers are trained and has gained experience in the field, they began to adapt to their organizational structure and values and practices in the field, which persists of corrupted behavior and tactics. The organizational structure of police agencies provides a basis for expectations and responsibilities of police officer while in the position of power. Officers who are appointed to higher positions of power will take on more responsibility and train officers of lower levels of the police institutions culture and practices. Training of police officers is an important factor of the job because it allows officers to stay educated and skilled with new threats to societal safety. The structure of the agency includes a chain of command, promotion requirements, operational duties, specified job tasks that is beneficial to the agency. As mentioned in class, strategy does drive organizational structure to include leadership and job tasks to ensure the department is running
Authors Roberg, Novak, Cordner, Smith discussed police functions as two primary roles. 1) patrol and 2) investigations. While officers are given a variety of activities and job task that they are held accountable to make appropriate decisions based on judgement. Police patrol has been referred to as the “backbone of policing” (Roberg). The patrol function provides the greatest amount of crime response and services to the community and its citizens. When looking at police strategies and practices, it is purposeful to analyze the agency’s goals of patrol and evaluate statistics to see how well the department is doing. For example, the goals of patrolling include, services, crime prevention, and community events that allow citizens to provide feedback about their police department. Patrolling allows officers more lead way to solve community problems and regulate criminal activity that is affecting the community. The investigations function is another major role within police field operations. Investigation function does not have many officers assigned, as they are only needed on a case by case basis. Most activities happen within the local community, which requires more officers to patrol and be available for intervention. While police officers investigate specific crimes and activity, they are gathering evidence, information, witnesses, collaterals