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
In 2005 NYPD Detective, first grade, James E. Griffith called internal affairs to report he was being pressured by a fellow officer to lie and take the blame during an internal inquiry for the mishandling of a homicide investigation by his unit (Goldstein, 2012). Another detective and union official claimed in his deposition that Griffin was a rat because he went to internal affairs instead of the union (Marzulli, 2013). According to the United States District Court Eastern District of New York’s memorandum of decision the retaliation was immediate, included adverse personnel actions and continued though out his career in different units until Detective Griffith was effectively forced to retire due to the harassment in 2009 (James Griffin v. the City of New York, n.d.). Griffin eventually filed a legal sit against The City of New York, the NYPD and two of the officers involved individually. This case study will analyze the incident, whistleblower laws and the ethical challenges involved.
We will examine the case of NYPD Narcotics Detective Frank Serpico, who was regarded as a snitch and a rat by fellow officers who were on the take, and complete a what would you do dilemma. Serpico's original intent was not to be a "whistleblower" within the Department, but rather all he wanted to do initially was to be a Police Officer and not accept any bribes, payoffs, or favors as a result of his professional position within the community (Petit, 2011). As a consequence of his testimony before the Knapp Commission in 1971, Serpico was ostracized by his peers as a deviant for being conscientious; ergo, although it cannot be proven, it is believed that he was ultimately set up to be shot during a drug raid in which he was seriously wounded. To this day, Frank Serpico questions why fellow cops never called in a code 10-13 officer down after he took a bullet in the face on Feb. 3, 1971 (McShane, 2012).
"A policeman’s first obligation is to be responsible to the needs of the community he serves…The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which an honest police officer can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around.", -Frank Serpico.
Frank Serpico, an Italian born in Brooklyn, and a former NYPD patrolman in the early 1970s. He was assigned to 81st precinct then work with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation for about two years. During his time of being a cop it was a lot of corruption especially for the NYPD because of drug dealers, gambling and protection. Serpico was a man who couldn’t be quiet. He noticed on his first day of work that his coworkers were dirty; sharing money that received from the criminals. He refused to go along with the system and when he was first offered a bribe, he reported it to his fellow workers. However, his allegations were intentionally damaged. He knew it wasn’t right and wants to reveal the situation and change the whole criminal justice
The Code of silence or blue curtain of secrecy is another element of the police sub-culture. This is the practice of officer to not come forward if when aware of the ethical transgressions of other officers (Pollock, 2015). This can come in many forms such as unnecessary
When political anarchy, social injustices, and crime end up leading to civil depravities that go against the foundation of democracy, society depends on the police to come in and keep the peace, while attempting to restore the order. These officers are asked to pursue criminals in vehicles, and on foot, repeatedly expose themselves to the dangers of the crimes, and remain calm while being under pressure at all moments on the job, and even off duty. Being an officer of the law takes a special person
These changes have manifested both positive and negative reverberations in the way we perform our job. Police officials have contemplated for years over the key to maintaining a positive image for their organization. Unfortunately, several incidents in the past years have altered society's perception of police in some communities. Police in America are no longer strangers to innovation born of scandal.
While on the job, police must put all their personal opinions aside. They must provide everyone with an equal and fair chance. It is important in a democratic society for police to not know too much about the community they are policing. It allows them to ...
) Why do police officer perceive themselves as true outsiders, especially after many years on the job?
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.
Bibliography Why Good Cops Go Bad. Newsweek, p.18. Carter, David L. (1986). Deviance & Police. Ohio: Anderson Publishing Co. Castaneda, Ruben (1993, Jan. 18). Bearing the Badge of Mistrust. The Washington Post, p.11. Dantzer, Mark L. (1995). Understanding Today's Police. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. James, George (1993, Mar. 29). Confessions of Corruption. The New York Times, P.8, James, George (1993, Nov. 17). Officials Say Police Corruption is Hard To Stop. The New York times, p.3. Sherman, Lawrence W(1978). Commission Findings. New York Post, P. 28 Walker, J.T. (1992). The police in America, p.243-263, chp. 10, Walker, Samuel (1999).
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
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
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...