Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections
ENG 302-B3
Since the inception of police departments and prisons, there have been ongoing
corruption scandals that entail law enforcement officers hiding behind the “Blue Wall of
Silence,” in which police officers cover for their corrupt fellow officers. However, anticorruption and deterrence measures can be put in place that usually stem from upper-level
management. Deterrence measures that should be put in place by police and prison officials in
order to deter corruption must be effective policies, as well as having the administration in place
before management can implement these policies to officers (Domonoske, 2013). This paper
focuses on reduction techniques for police corruption in America, as well as having better law
enforcement policies and management procedures.
In the history of police corruption, the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) had
many officers involved in the Rampart/CRASH scandal. One of the main perpetrators was
Officer Rafael Perez. In 1995 Perez joined the “Rampart anti-gang unit CRASH” (Young),
where he discovered a large amount of corruption and misconduct in his department. By 1998,
Perez was stealing, as well as dealing pounds of cocaine (Young). After he was arrested, Perez
cut a deal with prosecutors and began to them what really went wrong. As Perez calls it, the
“intoxicant of police power” was one of the main reasons he gave for stealing and selling drugs.
In addition to Rafael Perez, the controversial story of New York Police Department
(N.Y.P.D.) Police Officer Frank Serpico who was a key whistle-blower in the corruption case
brought against the New York Police Department (N.Y.P.D.) in the early 1970’s. It was
Serpico’s longtime complaining about this widespread corruption in the N.Y.P.D. that made him
a pariah on the force (Kilgannon, 2010). It was the sad turn of events in 1971 when Serpico was
on a drug bust, and was shot in the face. Moreover, his fellow officers did not rush to call an
ambulance for him while he screamed for help. Although Chief Police spokesman Paul J. Brown
Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections Tancredi 3
says, “It’s a different department now,” Serpico disagrees, and says, “The blue wall will always
be there because the system supports it” (Kilgannon, 2010). As long as police superiors tolerate
corruption, there will always be cover-ups.
In his article, Integrity Systems and Professional Reporting in Police Organizations,
author Seumas Miller makes correlations between Dirty Harry and vigilante police officers. As
he states, “The Clint Eastwood film, Dirty Harry, embodies this way of thinking: Inspector
Harry Callaghan tortures a psychopathic killer to try to determine the whereabouts of the girl the
killer has taken hostage, and does so with the apparent approval of cinema audiences” (2010).
Even though this vigilante behavior should not be tolerated, Dirty Harry does this with my
approval as well, even though I’m being slightly hypocritical in agreeing with my thesis.
The attitude of fellow officers protecting or keeping quiet about corrupt officers is not
new. This reluctance to talk to superiors or internal affairs about police corruption is called the
“blue wall of silence” (Miller, 2010). While there are questions that surround the politics of
police power, Miller also describes that it is almost a religion to those who where the uniform.
Police work is an enterprise and not just another job. “The core of the police outlook is this
subtle and complex intermingling of the themes of mission, hedonistic love of action and
pessimistic cynicism” (2010). Seeing that if officers have a “hedonistic love of action,” just
reinforces the Dirty Harry style of thinking, and can also make the make the public think that
police officers have a “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality, as well as take pleasure in
abusing their power. However, after interviewing law enforcement professionals, this is far from
the truth.
Just as this “hedonistic love of action” is thought to be part of the police culture, another
research topic of study is gypsy cops and officer shuffle. This “hedonistic love of action” could
Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections Tancredi 4
produce correlations to both “gypsy cops” and “officer shuffle.” This occurs when a police
officer has a history of wrongdoings, and moves on from department-to-department without
getting terminated. Events that have caused officer’s to become “gypsy cops” include officer’s
from the St. George Police Department of Saint George, Missouri, frequently pulling over a
teenager and trying to ticket him, or have ticketed him for minor traffic offenses. However, the
teenager finally installed a video camera in his car to disprove the police officers who have
always pulled him over. Moreover, this teenager became a nationwide celebrity for videotaping
these officers. Additionally, an Arnold Police Officer in Arnold, Missouri faced allegations of
sexual harassment when he stopped a 17-year-old girl, referring to her as “beautiful, hot, and
tempting” (Shockey-Eckles, 2011).
Although this is not a paper about media, the media does play a large role in policing,
because there are visual and recording devices everywhere. In this age of technology a police
officer could be recorded or photographed, sometimes with or without their knowledge. This was
widely visible when L.A.P.D. officers were recorded beating Rodney King on tape. As author
Peter K. Manning states, “Ethical issues cannot be extracted from the impact of the modern
visual experience. Media creates a stylized context, a public, lasting, reproducible, easily and
invisibly altered record of events. A natural event, once filmed, can reappear, edited and
formatted, thousands of times on many channels” (Manning, 2000). What manning is saying is
that, streaming media, as well as digital recordings can be digitally manipulated and sent to news
stations, only to make the officer a media spectacle. Police professionals also reinforce the hard
truth that there are recording devices everywhere.
Another point that Manning makes, echoes a scene in the film Training Day (2001),
where Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) saves a teenage girl form being raped. Hoyt the chokehold as a
Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections Tancredi 5
defense tactic on one of the junkies who tried to rape the young teenage girl. After he beats up
the junkies, his corrupt narcotics training Officer Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington), says to
him, “I noticed you used that chokehold. I thought that was a no-no procedure.” Jake’s response
was that he was getting beat up. Alonzo then said, “You did what you had to do.”(Training Day,
2001).
In Manning’s article, he makes reference to the Los Angeles Police Department’s use of
the chokehold, which caused fifteen deaths between 1975 and 1982. It was those deaths that
were the reason that the chokehold is no longer used as a defense tactic. However, the ethical
measures of Alonzo Harris telling Jake Hoyt that “You did what you had to do,” (Training Day,
2001) begs the question, is it alright to use illegal self-defense tactics when a police officer’s life
is threatened? In this case, I agree. Seeing the situation Officer Jake Hoyt was in, he had no
backup, because his corrupt partner wanted to see how that situation would unfold. Jake either
had to inflict pain on the junkies, or he would end up in the morgue.
Another line in Training Day (2001) recited by Alonzo Harris, is “It’s not what you
know, it’s what you can prove.” As Miller discusses, it’s very hard to convict experienced police
officers of corruption. An experienced officer has “knowledge of criminal law and police
investigative methods, and the evidentiary threshold for conviction-that is, beyond a reasonable
doubt-is high” (Miller, 2010). What this means is that an officer who has enough experience to
falsify evidence will be able to clear his tracks, and it doesn’t matter what other officers or
citizens say. If there is no evidence, there is no case.
In addition to police brutality, officers who accept free food and gratuities are often
looked down upon. In his article, One Dogma of Police Ethics: Gratuities and the “Democratic
Ethos” of Policing, N.Y.P.D. Deputy Inspector Brandon Del Pozo discusses the problem of
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police officers who accept free food and gratuities. While it is thought of as a nice gesture of
grateful citizens that like when the police patrol the streets to keep them safe, it is the officer’s
discretion as to either accept free food or not, because police services are paid for by the city
(2005). As Deputy Inspector Del Pozo says, “I have been offered discounted food by business
owners and frankly told it’s great to see police officers in here. It lets criminals know that this is
a place not to mess around with” (2005). However, the police should pay just like everyone else.
In an interview with Retired Deputy Sheriff Rick Jacobs, he said some of the same things
about accepting free food that Inspector Del Pozo said. When working the night shifts, Deputy
Jacobs would go to a local fast food restaurant since it was the only place around open late at
night. He would often be offered free food since the owners of the restaurant had family
members in law enforcement. When he tried to pay, his money was refused, and the cashier told
him that if he were to charge the deputy, he would be fired, since the owners had relatives in law
enforcement. Deputy Jacobs would then leave and go without food if he could not pay for it.
This is because Deputy Jacobs made up his moral values before getting into law enforcement,
and felt that accepting free food was not right. In addition to the examples given by Inspector Del
Pozo and Deputy Jacobs, there was a scene in the film Serpico (1973), which was the real story
of the N.Y.P.D. scandal during Officer Frank Serpico’s time on the force. A scene in the film
shows Serpico and his partner having lunch. As Serpico starts eating his lunch, he sees that the
meat is nothing but fat. As he goes to tell the restaurant owner about it, his partner tells him, “It’s
free, leave it alone.”
However, on the topic of Corrections, there have been some violent attacks on inmates,
such as the degrading prison abuse and torture scandals that include Abu Ghraib, where
American soldiers in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison brutally tortured and sexually humiliated
Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections Tancredi 7
Iraqi prisoners. These acts committed by American soldiers did not only shock people around the
world, but this scandal also hit home in the United States as well. These acts of corruption and
humiliation clearly display that “Public corruption and prison corruption are virtually
indistinguishable. They both evoke the primal forces that interact when the captors finally catch
up with the captured-the urge to exploit the prey that had got away” (Souryal, 2009).
Other notorious cases of prison corruption include Nazi concentration camps and the
Soviet Gulags. As Professor Sam Souryal points out, “Corruption by public officials has been
traditionally considered more sinister than that by private sector employees” (2009). In an
extreme situation, and under the testimony of a Corrections Lieutenant, a Georgia Prison
Commissioner had, “Touched off a bloody attack on the inmates when he grabbed an unresisting
inmate by the hair and dragged him across the floor” (Souryal, 2009). The Commissioner also
watched other correctional officers beat and kick inmates, some of who were handcuffed, and
some who were not, until the walls were filled with blood. The Commissioner then applauded
the guards at a chicken dinner to celebrate what they had done (Souryal, 2009).
Just as in policing, correctional officers receive their orders from the top, and if people at
top do nothing, the string of corruption will continue to unravel. After Abu Ghraib unfolded in
the media, there was a lot of finger pointing as to who instigated or ordered these horrible events
to happen in this abuse scandal. However, the question posed is it just a few bad apples
committing these beatings, or is widespread corruption that is deep seeded in the prison system
(Miller, 2010)?
Although prison officials are entrusted to see that inmates are watched, protected from
other inmates, and given three meals a day, there are prison officials, such as wardens that will
deny that brutality against inmates or mismanagement had taken place. In some cases, the
Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections Tancredi 8
higher-ranking officials will ask their subordinates to falsify evidence, use deception, or make
excuses to why an inmate was either brutalized, or why the prison management is disorganized.
What these officials do is deceive people in order to make themselves and the agency look good.
This corruption echoes the same deceptive tactics the Nazi’s implemented when Jew’s in
concentration camps were forced to write to their families and tell them everything is all right,
while it was not. This just goes to show that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
However, it is when an officer abuses their power, as well as officers who are under
stress, can act irrationally when they are not thinking clearly. South Carolina Police Captain
Kevin Marsee, who has seen erratic behavior first hand by officers under stress, backs up this
claim. Additionally, Miami Police Sergeant Max Gabriel agrees that officers get caught up in the
moment at times when they are apprehending a suspect, and violate proper arresting procedure.
Sergeant Gabriel calls this behavior “tunnel vision,” and sees this behavior come out in officers
when they become caught up in the moment, while trying to arrest a suspect. Although,
Hollywood dishes out films such as Dirty Harry and other vigilante cops, it sometimes hard to
draw the line as to what is fact and what is fiction. When I asked Captain Marsee if he ever
encountered any of these “Dirty Harry cops,” He said, “Some people get into law enforcement
because they see these types of films. It is important to recognize these officers either before they
are hired or if that behavior is seen when those officers first start in the department.”
This paper focuses on reduction techniques for police corruption in America, as well as
having better law enforcement policies and management procedures. In order to combat
corruption in the criminal justice system, having effective streamlined complaints and disciplined
system, a basic code of ethics for using firearms, recruitment training, as well as ongoing
professional development programs, support systems for alcohol abuse and psychological injury,
Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections Tancredi 9
intelligence gatherings, risk management and early warning systems for at-risk officers, and
ethical leadership that gives priority to the job, instead of one’s own self-interest (Miller, 2010).
However, while implementing risk management and ethical leadership, administration
and executive management techniques are necessary for such criminal justice executives
including police chiefs and prison wardens. Having and writing the proper and organized
administration into police and corrections policies is one of the first steps in hammering down on
corruption, which then allows management to lead in an effective organized manner that reduces
communication errors, assumption, and corruption, because there will be a tighter hold on police
and corrections management (Domonoske, 2013). As Clair Domonoske states, “When the police
manager takes the time to make good decisions as reflected through policy, training and
supervision based on the design of discretion, the line officer’s delivery of discretion is better
supported” (2006).
Although there are management procedures in place, not all management procedures are
followed properly by all levels of command. One of the main reasons for this mismanagement is
interpretation, and this kind of mismanagement could lead to corruption among officers who do
not have the proper organized leaders in place to start. While combatting this problem of
corruption and mismanagement may seem convoluted in many ways, some effective
management techniques may include using Industrial/Organizational Psychology or
organizational development techniques, which are designed to plan and create change effectively
in the workplace (Baily & Cree, 2011). Moreover, the continuous use of effective police
management and leadership skills will continue to boost the effectiveness of a police agency.
While officers might second guess new policies or leadership decisions, it may be because old
ineffective policies are either in place, or the current policies are not followed at all. Taking
Ethics in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis in Policing and Corrections Tancredi 10
shortcuts is not the answer, and either is “cronyism,” which plagues the criminal justice system.
An effective leader expects policies to be followed without shortcuts being taken (Hansen,
2011). While these new policies might not be popular, they can be the first step in combatting
corruption and misconduct in police departments.
Additionally, having honest leaders in place will effectively put officers on the right path,
rather than leading them into a world of police corruption, where they can be scrutinized by the
media. As professor, and retired Boston Police Lieutenant Thomas Nolan states, “As a police
lieutenant, I was expected to educate inexperienced (and even veteran) officers in the fine art of
creative report writing so that the truth was never allowed to get in the way of a rendition
designed to conceal missteps or wrongdoing (a role, incidentally, which I played in a manner
considered “legendary”) (Nolan, 2009). Lieutenant Nolan just reinforced the need for honest
leaders, as well as leaders who are teachers, and not just bosses.
As my research has proven, not every police officer is corrupt, and can personally testify
to that fact since I have made friends who are police officers while living in South Florida. As
any experienced officer knows, good leadership is everything, just as Lieutenant Nolan has
stated. A good police leader knows that investigations take time to solve; satisfying everyone is
not always possible, effective report writing and good communication is essential, and most
importantly, a good honest police leader knows of above all one thing, crime doesn’t pay,
whether committed by a civilian or fellow police officer. Moreover, someone summed up what I
said in just two lines. “Crime is as contagious as the pest. No one can commit it without having
to pay for it”- Napoleon Bonaparte.
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