Police misconduct is inappropriate conduct and illegal actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties. Types of misconduct include among others: sexual offences, coerced false confession, intimidation, false arrest, false imprisonment, falsification of evidence, spoliation of evidence, police perjury, witness tampering, police brutality, police corruption, racial profiling, unwarranted surveillance, unwarranted searches, and unwarranted seizure of property.
Types of police misconduct
Types of police misconduct include:
Bribing or lobbying legislators to pass or maintain laws that give police excessive power or status
Similarly, bribing or lobbying city council members to pass or maintain municipal laws that make victimless acts ticket-able (e.g. bicycling on the sidewalk), so as to get more money
Selective enforcement (“throwing the book at” people who one dislikes; this is often related to racial discrimination)
Sexual misconduct[1]
Off-duty misconduct[2]
Killing of dogs unjustly[3]
Noble cause corruption, where the officer believes the good outcomes justify bad behavior[4]
Using badge or other ID to gain entry into concerts, to get discounts, etc.[how?]
Influence of drugs or alcohol while on duty
Violations by officers of police procedural policies
Abusive police procedures
Police officers often share what is known in the United States as a “blue code of silence” which means that they do not turn each other in for misconduct. While some officers have called this code a myth,[5] a 2005 survey found evidence that it exists.[6] A 2019 study in the journal Nature found that misconduct by one police officer substantially increased the likelihood that peer officers would also engage in misconduct.[7][8] In addition to the blue code of silence, police misconduct also can lead to a miscarriage of justice and sometimes the obstruction of justice. At least 85,000 officers in the US have been investigated for misconduct, and some are constantly under investigation; nearly 2,500 have been investigated on 10 or more charges.[9]
In an effort to control police misconduct, there is an accelerating trend for civilian agencies to engage directly in investigations and to have greater inputs into disciplinary decisions. Additionally, individuals and groups are now filming police activities in an effort to make them accountable for their actions. With the proliferation of smart devices capable of high-quality video recording, instances of police misconduct and abuse are gaining attention on social media platforms and video-hosting sites such as YouTube. To protect their interests, some officers have resorted to verbal intimidation as well as physical violence against civilians attempting to record their misdeeds. In other circumstances, police will illegally seize, destroy or delete evidence recorded by civilians, in spite of laws that make it a crime to destroy evidence of a crime being committed.[10][11] Contributors and prediction
Police misconduct is sometimes associated with conscious or unconscious discrimination. Misconduct has been shown to be related to personality and correlated to education, but it can also be significantly affected by the culture of the police agency.[12] Education is negatively correlated to misconduct, with better-educated officers receiving fewer complaints on average.[13]
Some analyses have found that changes in structural disadvantage, population mobility, and immigrant population have been associated with changes in police misconduct. Social disorganization may create a context for police misconduct because residents may not have in place the social networks necessary to organize against police malpractice.[14] The fact that most police officers enjoy broad discretion and minimal supervision has been cited as increasing opportunities for police misconduct.[15] Video and audio recording
Many police cars are now equipped with recording systems, which can deter, document or rebut police misconduct during traffic stops. Usually, the recordings have rebutted claims of police misconduct according to a 2004 study by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Community Oriented Policing Service;[16] future innovations in recording equipment could allow an officer’s entire workday to be recorded.[16] Some transparency advocates believe that such cameras should be installed in all police cruisers to ensure accountability.[17] Some police departments have experimented with Taser cameras that automatically begin recording when the Taser is deployed.[18] The Cato Institute recommends that police record all no-knock raids.[19] In recent times, police departments have been trying to implement the body camera as a step to fixing misconduct. The police departments in Pittsburgh have been trying body cameras on their officers to see both the positive and negative aspects of using body cameras.
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