Police Misconduct & Accountability

3 page Summary/Critique on Police Misconduct and Accountability in APA format

ANSWER

Police Accountability and Misconduct

Introduction

Law enforcement in a free society aims at upholding the rule of law and promote public safety for individual liberty to flourish. Proper policing practices require that law enforcers build a positive relationship with the community, prevent tactics that encourage the use of excessive force, and respect civil liberties. Therefore this paper will critique the police misconduct and accountability that significantly affect law enforcement. Considerably, police accountability and misconduct have been widely discussed in several highly publicized incidents as misuse of police powers and abusing the rights and privileges of the public.

Over the years, the police have performed duties assigned to them by the law, such as protecting individuals against crime, violence, and other harmful incidents (Ivković et al., 2019). Therefore, police officers are expected to act according to the rule of law to ensure that they are respected and trusted with their level of responsibility. Dishonesty, incompetence, and benevolence towards the ordinary citizens have done little to inspire the citizen’s trust and confidence. There are many reasons not to trust the police, with much being related to poor accountability and misconduct of the police. The structural relationship between the citizens and the police and the traditional functions and roles of the police has led to dispositions, attitudes, and certain characteristics of police interaction with the citizens (Drummond and Mills, 2020).

Accountability has been a crucial element in American policing. Accountability entails legitimacy and lawfulness, which are significant if the police can achieve their goals of lowering disorder and crime, thus enhancing the quality of life in the neighborhood and serving the needs of the community (Collins and Klahm, 2018). However, lack of legitimacy has greatly inhibited the development of essential partnerships between the police and the community. Lack of accountable policing, such as corruption, has led to police misbehaviors. Dishonesty, lack of integrity, and dependence on political influences have led to ineffective, unfair, and illegitimate in protecting the public. Ideally, police officers that lack integrity tends to enlarge their operational independence without the desire to respond to the public’s needs and remain accountable in a transparent manner.

Ideally, accountability entails a system of external and internal checks to ensure the police reform the functions and have a high responsibility. Police have misused their powers which have reduced public confidence and lowered police legitimacy (Collins and Klahm, 2018). For instance, misuse of control over the police has led to police not being questioned about their actions and decisions. They deny the consequences of being guilty of their misconduct and fail to compensate victims. Without transparency and accountability, the forms of police misconduct have continued to thrive.

Police misconduct entails inappropriate and illegal actions that police officers take. This involves police brutality, corruption, racial profiling, witness tampering, coercive interrogations, excessive use of force, and violation of constitutional rights (Wood, Roithmayr, and Papachristos, 2019). The culture of police misconduct has developed from a lack of effective training and recruitment, failures in resources, and accountability systems with the police departments. Ideally, police misconduct has led to obstruction of justice and miscarriage of justice.

For instance, when police officers make an arrest, they must tell the investigators about the case information and details. However, some have lied to investigators about the case or arrest, which greatly obstructs justice and is against the regulations and policy rules. Police officers have also been involved in racial profiling, where they target men of color and base their crime suspects on color or skin. In most states, police officers are considered as one of the most corrupt individuals. Police-related corruption may include petty activities like paying bribes and conspiring with organized crime gangs and criminals in human trafficking, drugs, and weapons.

One of the most common police misconducts is the use of excessive and unwarranted force against civilians. Although police officers experience risks in their line of duty, they sometimes decide to use excessive use of force in situations that do not allow such measures (Drummond and Mills, 2020). The forms of police brutality have ranged from beatings, assault, murder, and torture. For instance, suspects are grabbed, offenders roughly patted down and struck with a button, or even shot. These forms of police brutality are high against the minorities such as Hispanics, African Americans, and the Mexican nationality. Police brutality has involved excess morbidity, racists public demands, severe psychological responses, incarcerations, arrests, and oppressive structures that lead to systematic disempowerment. Considerably, police misconduct may affect the individual and community well-being. However, the most discouraging notion is that most of the police officers found guilty are subjected to light discipline actions. It’s shameful that law enforcement has played a bigger role in enforcing the current situation of corruption, misconduct, and discrimination rather than protecting and serving the public as indicated in the police code of conduct.

Conclusion

Complaints and publicized incidents of police accountability and misconduct have done little to change police practices. However, police officers need to be responsible for their decisions and general practices, showing openness and accepting liability when needed. The police departments need to focus on effective policies and training to eliminate ineffective, unfair, and illegitimate police officers in safeguarding the public against criminal activities. Police officers need to serve the public as per their interest to increase public trust and confidence.

References

Collins, T., & Klahm IV, C. F. (2018). Police Accountability and Ethics. The Handbook of Social Control, 263-275.

Drummond, C. B., & Mills, M. N. (2020). Addressing Official Misconduct: Increasing Accountability in Reducing Wrongful Convictions. The Wrongful Conviction Law Review, 1(3), 270-290.

Ivković, S. K., Mraović, I. C., Božović, V., Prprović, B., & Nemec, N. (2019). Public views about police misconduct and police integrity in a comparative perspective. In Exploring Police Integrity (pp. 219-246). Springer, Cham.a

Wood, G., Roithmayr, D., & Papachristos, A. V. (2019). The network structure of police misconduct. Socius, 5, 237802311987979