There is no positive impact of police corruption in any particular nation. Fear and anger have been the main results of police corruption among the citizens of every society. It is important for individuals to have trust in their law enforcers, however, in the absence of trust, ripple effects will be created. It has been noted that the individuals who have got no trust in the law and rules often take the law in their hands which could be dangerous and harmful to any particular society. In the past cases of police, corruption has been rampant and serious acts. The aspect of corruption has been considered as an occupation harm for the police and this is because of the huge number of opportunities which have been created to encourage corrupt behaviors by the police.
The various organization entitled to deal with the corruption acts by the police have become reluctant to take action against the police officer implicated in corrupt activities. The reduction of corruption cases against the police often needs the establishment in the police services an integrity system. Such a system will typically help in reducing the corrupt behavior which has been displayed by the police in the past. Generally, police corruption entails the misuse of positions by the police force with the aim of gaining a personal advantage. Corruption is a necessary and unavoidable aspect of police work.
The above statement is not true and this because of the negative effects the act of corruption will bring to the society especially the act of corruption which has been fueled by the police officers. A lot of the police officers will take advantage of the situation and will do a variety of illegal activities. This paper aims at providing insights on the reasons why police corruption is not necessary and should be an avoidable aspect of police work.
There are a variety of reasons why police corruption is unnecessary and hence should not be an element in police work. For example, police corruption has widely contributed to the miscarriages of justice. The aspect of justice cannot be achieved with the presence of police corruption (Lord, 2016 p.100). The existence of police corruption has seen many criminals not being prosecuted. The innocent individuals have also been convicted for criminal offenses which they never committed. It is therefore concluded that when police corruption has been made a necessity in the police work, various criminal activities will be increased since the criminals will have the opportunity to carry out their criminal activities without any particular because they will not be found. Also, some of the police officers will be tempted to engage in various criminal activities and thus police corruption should not be necessary.
The other reason why police corruption should not be necessary is that it will indirectly result in criminal activities and this will entail the subversion of the trust between the police and a particular society (O’Hara and Sainato, 2015 p.160). The trust between the society and the police is always necessary to ensure effective policing services. The increased criminal activities in the community will typically result in the imposition of financial burdens on the particular society. The financial burdens will be in terms of an increased cost of crime and crime prevention measures including public inquiries and litigations.
Police corruption has generally contributed to impunity. Often police corruption has been associated with certain organized criminal activities such as drug syndicates. There are therefore two main implications of police corruption in relation to drugs. It will generally encourage drug trafficking by aiding the drug traffickers to escape law enforcement and hence carry out their operations effectively (Metcalf, 2017 p.80). Also, the drug traffickers also engage in some other criminal activities such as murder, robberies, and racketeering. When police officers generally allow such criminal acts by providing information to criminal offenders, they are considered to promote criminal activities (Stoughton, 2016 p.611). Based on the above mentioned statement, it can be said that police corruption is unnecessary.
Further, the corruption acts by the police encourage the state of lawlessness on the road and this is an attitude that which will be formed among various individuals that the laws put in place are not to be considered seriously (Kumari and Sharma, 2016 p.3). The existence of laws relating to roads are necessary for road safety and therefore when there are a lot of corruption cases among the police being witnessed, there will be a decline in respect for the rules. The non-respect for the rules on road safety will result in a rise in traffic accidents and dangerous driving among various individuals. In regards to impunity, the police corruption will result in favoritism especially for the politician and friends of the police officers when they violate the law (Makin and Marenin, 2017 p.430). There will, therefore, be a perception of the fallacy of impartial law enforcement by the society due to the acts of favoritism.
According to Johnston (2017 p.140), the society will see that the law has become malleable and this because it is not applied fairly to everyone in relation to violation of the law. It is only the individual who does not have any kind of connection or rather influences who will be convicted of a variety of criminal offenses. Police corruption should also be unnecessary because it will result in the diversion of various public resources. Such public resources could be in various forms such as property, person power, police time and unfair allocation of the resources.The above corruption act will typically interfere with the effectiveness and efficiency of the criminal justice system (Kasali and Odetola, 2016 p.98). A key example occurs when a variety of owners of business enterprises offers certain goodies to the police officers in exchange for protection by the police officers. The resources which are supposed to be used in the police sector are instead being diverted for private use and the worst part is that such resources have been paid by the public money.
The other reason why police corruption is unnecessary and should be avoided at all cost by the police officers is that it will result in the spread of a culture of corruption in the society. When there are instances of violations of laws and rules by the police, there will be an increase in the level of impunity (Jacobs, 2016 p.95). With an increased impunity level, the law will be considered as being applicable in a variety of ways to different people and thus the breach of the law will become rational. Further, most of the police officers will take advantage of certain opportunities which may be made available which could be seen as a mere and minor violation. Some of the minor violations may include, petty theft or even a small bribe. However such small criminal acts may gradually grow and later become serious crimes in the society which could be rationalized (Talvitie, 2017 p.4480).
There is also a greater impact on service delivery as a result of police corruption. The services provided by the police have become of poor quality. Most of the people in the society have a belief that all the police officers are involved in corruption and hence give certain amounts of money to the police officers in exchange for various favors (Cordner, 2016 p.50). The public has become more aware of the fact that the police officers have formed a tendency of diverting the public funds into their pockets instead of delivering quality services to the people. A fundamental view of the individual citizens on the police officers is that all of them are corrupt, murder the innocent and are brutal.
Police corruption also has an impact on the police organizational culture such that the corrupt acts will become part and parcel of the police officers (Cheloukhine, 2017 p.48). The cases of corruption will be considered as an acceptable behavior among the police officers and it will even be promoted. The act of encouraging the corrupt behaviors among the police officers will be a signal that the rules and laws relating to criminal offenses are unnecessary and therefore just a mere sham (Leo, 2017 p.40). It should be noted that the non-corrupt police officers who have made arrests of various individuals found to have committed criminal offenses are demoted, transferred and also assigned certain other minor tasks by their bosses. The culture of police corruption is still a menace.
According to Chase (2018 p.15), the other reason why police corruption is unnecessary is that it will reduce the level of public trust in the police force service. The respect that various individuals have on the police will also be reduced. Some of the minor corruption acts done by the police which could include, colluding with the criminal offenders and bribing by the business owners for protection lower the trust the public has on the police. Such trust is related to a level of honesty, integrity, and fairness among police officers (Ganapathy and Cheong, 2016 p.338). A decrease in the public trust of the police officers will certainly have various implications. A key implication entails deterioration of the relationship between the police and the individual citizens. The effectiveness of policing in society will, therefore, be reduced.
According to Torrible (2018 p.470), the other implication of the absence of public trust on the police could be the reason for the decline in the credibility of the police officers in relation to court matters. Some of the police officers will typically provide wrong evidence in a court of law to avoid prosecuting a particular criminal offender. The performance of the criminal justice system will, therefore, be interfered with such act of absence of credibility of the police officers by the public. Also, police corruption results in victimization (Alexandra and Miller, 2016 p.10). A key example of victimization contributed by corrupt acts of the police relates to the provision of evidence and also the investigation of certain criminal activities. In certain circumstances, the police officers tend to tamper with evidence aimed at the prosecution of a particular criminal offender. With the interference of the pieces of evidence, it can be noted that wrong suspects may be convicted and this is usually done by the officer with the intention of increasing their level of credibility in the handling of certain cases (Friedman and Pnomarenko, 2015 p.1827).
Another form of victimization caused by the corruption propagated by police officers occurs when the officers cover up for the various criminal offenders in relation to committing perjury. In such a form of victimization, the police officers tend to claim that the particular individual who has been arrested had previously refused to be arrested. Also, they could say that the person had abused them and this has been considered as part of the process of victimization (Akerstrom, 2017 p.100). The extortion of money from various individuals by the police officers is also seen as a way of victimizing the citizens. The above mentioned act is an impact of police corruption and it is clear that it should be unnecessary since it contributes to the taking of money in form of bribes from the public by the police officers. The helpless citizens who do not have money cannot, therefore, receive justice from the police officers (Van Craen, 2016 p.285).
Conclusion
In summary, a clear comprehension of the many impacts of police corruption provides insight into the reasons why it should be unnecessary. There are both direct and indirect impacts of the forms of corruption displayed by the police which has affected negatively the criminal justice system. For example, police corruptions results in absence of public trust on the police could be the reason for the decline in the credibility of the police officers in relation to court matters. The other effect is that it will result in the spread of a culture of corruption in the society and this will result in an increased level of impunity in most of society.
Other implications of the police corruption which makes it unnecessary include, promotion of a state of lawlessness on the roads and increased criminal activities in the community which will typically result in the imposition of financial burdens on the particular society. It is generally important for the police officer to undergo training in matters relating to curbing cases of corruption among themselves. Such training should focus on the implications and the available opportunities which could be associated with menace.
References
Akerstrom, M., 2017. Suspicious gifts: bribery, morality, and professional ethics. Routledge.
Alexandra, A. and Miller, S., 2016. Integrity systems for occupations. Routledge.
Chase, S., 2018. In Search of Individual and Organizational Fairness in Policing. International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy, and Research, 3(1), pp.7-21.
Cheloukhine, S., 2017. Corruption and Bribery in Law Enforcement and State Civil Servants. In Policing in Russia(pp. 35-59). Springer, Cham.
Cordner, G.W., 2016. Police administration. Routledge.
Friedman, B. and Pnomarenko, M., 2015. Democratic policing. NYUL Rev., 90, p.1827.
Ganapathy, N. and Cheong, H., 2016. The “thinning” blueline: a Bourdieuian appreciation of police subculture. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 40(4), pp.325-342.
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Kasali, M.A. and Odetola, R.G., 2016. Alternative Approach to Policing in Nigeria: Analyzing the Need to Redefine Community Policing in Tackling the Nation’s Security Challenges. African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies: AJCJS, 9(1), p.98.
Kumari, N. and Sharma, R.K., 2016. Pursuance of Core Principles of Police Reforms*: A Critique. The Indian Police Journal, 63(2-3).
Leo, J., 2017. Two Cultures of Policing: Street Cops and Management Cops. Routledge.
Lord, N., 2016. Regulating corporate bribery in international business: Anti-corruption in the UK and Germany. Routledge.
Makin, D.A. and Marenin, O., 2017. Let’s dance: variations of partnerships in community policing. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 11(4), pp.421-436.
Metcalf, B., 2017. New police management, performance and accountability. In Questioning the New Public Management(pp. 71-88). Routledge.
O’Hara, P. and A. Sainato, V., 2015. Monetizing the police: Corruption vectors in agency-managed off-duty work. Policy and Society, 34(2), pp.151-164.
Stoughton, S.W., 2016. Principled policing: Warrior cops and guardian officers. Wake Forest L. Rev., 51, p.611.
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