To understand the blue wall of silence we must understand the definition. The blue wall of silence is defined as: An unwritten code among police officers not to report on another officer’s errors, misconducts, and or crimes when questioned about an incident of misconduct involving another colleague, during a course of an inquiry. Even though the blue wall of silence originated from the understandable need for law enforcement to be able to trust and rely on each other, it is neither morally justifiable nor is it a legal act. The wall of silence hinders the relationship with the community by degrading the trust and compromising the integrity. It is generally understood that the code of silence breeds, supports and nourishes other forms of unethical …show more content…
It is both a result and a cause of police isolation from the larger society and of police solidarity. Its influence begins early in the new officer’s career when he is told by more experienced officers that the “training given in police academies is irrelevant to ‘real’ police work”. What is relevant, recruits are told, is the experience of senior officers who know the ropes or know how to get around things. Recruits are often told by officers with considerable experience to forget what they learned in the academy and in college and to start learning real police work as soon as they get to their Field Training Officers. Among the first lessons learned are that police officers share secrets among themselves and that those secrets especially when they deal with activities that are questionable in terms of ethics, legality, and departmental policy, are not to be told to others. They also are told that administrators and Internal Affairs officers cannot often be trusted. This emphasis on the police occupational subculture results in many officers regarding themselves as members of a “blue …show more content…
However, police whistleblower is unfortunately all too rare. In the rare cases when other cops do muster the strength to and integrity to report gross misconduct of another officer, the whistleblower is often times ostracized, intimidated, threats made to the security of their jobs, and threats to their lives. For instance, Mr. Barron Bowling was awarded $830,000 due to the life long brain damage from a beating he received from a Drug Enforcement Administration agent Timothy McCue in Kansas City, KS. Timothy McCue claimed that Mr. Bowling resisted arrest. Fortunately a police detective names Max Seifert had the strength to report the wrong doings of the DEA agent. In doing so, he said reported that Timothy McCue threatened to kill Mr. Bowling, called him White Trash, and called him a system dodging inbred hillbilly. Members of the department destroyed photos of the physical damage done to Mr Bowling. Officer Seifert took the statement of witnesses and re-documented the physical and presented it to officials. For being a whistleblower, officer Seifert was forced into early retirement, lost a sizeable part of his pension, and retirement health insurance. In addition, his name and service was slandered and
Corruption is a persistent problem that plagues the world and it knows no boundaries. Transparency International defines it as the “abuse of entrusted power for private gain” (2013). For the purposes of this thread, ‘corruption’ is defined as any individual, collective, or structural act or process that permits the use of public authority or position for private gain. This definition captures the broad and many ways individuals and institutions abuse power and the public trust. In regard to whistleblowing, much conflict stems from the context in which the whistleblower is viewed. We will examine the case of NYPD Narcotics Detective Frank Serpico who was regarded a snitch and a rat by fellow officers who were on the take and complete a what would you do dilemma.
) Why do police officer perceive themselves as true outsiders, especially after many years on the job?
Dempsey, J. S., & Frost, L. S. (2012). Police Ethics and Police Deviance. An Introduction to Policing (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
This is very true in today's police work. A police department has to be able to stand the test of time. By this I mean must be capable of enduring changes in government, and be able to react to any situation they may encounter. The department must also be efficient when handling a case or investigation, any wrong step and everything goes the wrong way. Also must be like in the military, follow chains of command and promote in rank
...an also affect the integrity of a department. The book states that “if the police culture influences the level of police misconduct, it is important to change it” (Pollock 208) This culture can lead officers to believe that what others are doing is ok, and, that in turn, makes it okay for them to do it also. These views and actions can be changed by a change in supervision or by taking ethics classes.
A main factor of the code of silence is loyalty, to always be there for the other officers even if that means to lie or hide things for them. Loyalty is required and significantly important in police work, in fact it is the second of six truths of policing (to always remain loyal to fellow colleagues.) When future officers first begin their training in police academies the importance of loyalty is embedded into the studies: many areas of the training require the officers to be placed into groups so that th...
“There are three kinds of people in the world. There are wolves and there are sheep. And then there are those who protect the sheep from the wolves” (Christopher Shields qtd, Police Line). There are many sheep in the world, but for every sheep there is a wolf. In this quote, those protecting the sheep are police officers. The men and women of the police force choose to defend the “sheep” everyday. These “sheep” are everyday citizens, while the wolves are the criminals. Those protecting the sheep in this quote are often in danger just like police officers are often in danger while protecting citizens. Though police cadets go through many months of training, it does not help to fully prepare the new officers for everyday situations. It is necessary for the community that cadets are provided with more complete training that will benefit the officers once they are on the job.
Within our police system in America, there are gaps and loopholes that give leeway to police officials who either abuse the authority given to them or do not represent the ethical standards that they are expected to live up to by society. Because of the nature of police work, there is a potential for deterioration of these ethical and moral standards through deviance, misconduct, corruption, and favoritism. Although these standards are set in place, many police officers are not held accountable for their actions and can easily get by with the mistreatment of others because of their career title. While not every police abuses his or her power, the increasingly large percentage that do present a problem that must be recognized by the public as well as those in charge of police departments throughout our country. Police officials are abusing their power and authority through three types of misconduct known as malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance and these types are being overlooked by management personnel who rarely intervene even though they know what is happening. Misconduct is wrong because it violates rights and causes people to be wrongly accused of crimes or be found not guilty and set free when they are still an endangerment to other people. The public needs to be educated on what is happening in the police system in hopes that someone will speak out to protect citizens from being violated by police officers.
Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one. Here are some reasons why it is a problem. First, many departments don’t provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to do in a non-violent situation, often resorting
Officers were the enforcers of Jim Crow laws and throughout the last century, the face of African American oppression. However, the stop snitching campaign isn’t about cops and robbers. Simply put, it’s about us- against them.
Organizational culture is completely prevalent within law enforcement. Law enforcement develop’s this band of brotherhood that can only be understood amongst the individual’s in that culture. This culture shares value, goals and lifestyles, which is not represented by society and only shared by fellow officers. Even though this organizational culture can at times be defined as bias, because it is exclusionary of non-law enforcement personnel, it can be looked at as a positive for the members within that culture. For instance, the job of a police officer can be arduous and being able to have an outlet of like-minded officer’s help’s other officer’s deal with the anxiety and emotional stress that comes along with the job. This type of camaraderie
Cordner, G. W. (2016). Police Administration, 9th Edition. Waltham, MA: Routledge Publishing. P. 391. Retrieved July 21, 2017, from https://www.betheluniversityonline.net/cps/default.aspx?SectionID=5753&tabid=154#1
It is a common conception that police officers choose their particular career path simply because they are inheriting a family member’s desire. They choose to be an officer because their father or their mother or a relative was an officer. It is a common conception that officers are not chosen they are inherited and expected to be from family. This area of interest is something that would be well suited for that of research and a study. How many police officers performing duties today have had a family member who was also a police officer? We can achieve our results through a survey that will take place the process of doing research and contacting police officers over the internet, over the telephone and doing so by interviewing them.
Correcting police misconduct and police officers using professional discretion and crossing ethical boundaries is a colossal challenge that every police department in America has at one time taken on. In order to correct the problem police departments should maintain a written policy regarding the guidelines pertaining to the use of officer discretion and the result of incorrectly using their discretion. Also, training in police ethics and past examples of officer misconduct must be incorporated from the first day at the academy, in addition to annual ethics training. This will lay the foundation for a police department’s success. Reward an officer’s ethical behavior. Rewarding ethical behavior and disciplining officers for unethical
Today 's police officer in the United States has evolved in many ways from when the first police department, the Philadelphia Police Department, formed in 1751. Police officers now go through extensive training, are better educated, physically fit, and have access to vast technologies in the fight against crime. Yet even with these additional attributes, the primary role of the police officer has remained the same, to serve and protect. The people who take up this profession do it knowing that it will involve working in high stress environments, rotating work shifts, long periods way from family and friends, and instances of life and death. These officers dedicate themselves to helping others and work to make their community a safer place. It 's a profession that requires ethics, honor, integrity, and professionalism if you wish to succeed as a police officer.