Change Your World Week Winter 2022 (Archived)

       Police misconduct is simply when a law enforcement officer does not follow the rules set by our country's laws and his or her agency's procedures. It could be anything from a police officer who fell asleep in a squad car on the side of the road during the midnight shift, or an officer who used lethal force against someone when lethal force wasn't necessary. There are a few different kinds of police misconduct which typically dominate the news and are the most prevalent.

Excessive Force

           Every police officer is taught the Use of Force Continuum throughout their law enforcement education. Quite simply, the Use of Force Continuum is a guide that dictates what amount of force is necessary to resolve a situation. Everything from giving verbal commands, to ending a vehicle pursuit with a Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) maneuver, to shooting a suspect with a firearm can be considered as a use of force. For instance, a suspect who is arguing with a police officer and is refusing to follow lawful orders should be dealt with using verbal commands and perhaps some soft handholds to render compliance, while a suspect who is shooting at a crowd of civilians should be dealt with using lethal force. 

              Unfortunately, there are many cases where police officers have broken from the Use of Force Continuum, and have used more force than is necessary, often resulting in injury or death for the suspect. One such case in Arkansas involved a woman who was in the process of being pulled over by a police officer. As she turned on her hazard lights to find a safe place to pull off, State Trooper Rodney Dunn executed a Precision Immobilization Technique on the woman's car, flipping it and causing extensive damage. The woman was pregnant at the time. Another incident, which occurred in 2020 and sparked substantial public outcry all around the country, involved the death of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. When Floyd began to exhibit active resistance after being detained and placed in a squad car, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck, killing him.

Police Corruption

            In the course of a police officer's career, he or she will encounter many situations in which the officer stands to gain quite a bit of money by undertaking an illicit action. Any act of misconduct in which a police officer breaks the rules for his or her own gain, financial or otherwise, is called police corruption.               One such form of police corruption occurs when a police officer takes a bribe from someone in exchange for "looking the other way" while that person carries out criminal activities. It can occur on a scale as small as a police officer taking a bribe from a motorist who has been pulled over in order to avoid getting a ticket, and it can occur on a scale as large as an entire department accepting large sums of money from organized crime in exchange for not prosecuting that organization. It is worth noting that police officers are offered bribes quite often, but many choose not to take the bribes, as doing so would be career-suicide, and the sum of money offered to them is not worth that price.

               Another form of corruption occurs when a police officer uses his or her authority as a police officer to gain access to goods or services that an ordinary citizen might not have, which is called extortion. This can occur when a police officer pressures a business for a discount on the ground that he or she is a police officer, and it can occur when a police officer solicits a bribe from a suspect in exchange for not prosecuting them.

               Police corruption can also take the form of opportunistic theft, which occurs when a police officer takes advantage of a potentially lucrative situation and takes something that doesn't belong to him or her. Taking and selling illegal drugs that have been seized as evidence is opportunistic theft. Taking a piece of jewelry from a house that has just been ransacked during a burglary, and then claiming that the jewelry was stolen by the suspected burglar, is opportunistic theft. Taking a wad of cash from a drug dealer who has just been arrested by the officer is opportunistic theft. 

Other Forms of Police Misconduct

               There are plenty of forms of police misconduct which might not fall into a generalized category. As previously stated, police misconduct is simply when a police officer doesn't follow the rules, and there are a lot of rules to follow as a police officer, so consequently, there are a lot of ways that the rules can be broken. Falling asleep or drinking on the job is police misconduct, since not only are these universally prohibited activities in law enforcement, but they endanger the public as well, as they both impair the officer's ability to effectively respond to the emergencies that law enforcement officers exist to deal with. Even something as simple as speeding in departments where police officers aren't allowed to exceed the speed limit in non-emergencies is police misconduct. 

          Perhaps the biggest threat to solving police misconduct is the Blue Wall of Silence. The Blue Wall of Silence refers to a general reluctance on the part of law enforcement officers to report incidents of police misconduct that they have witnessed. It is easy to see why this happens. Police departments become very tightly knit, as police officers see and deal with the worst that society has to offer, and they do it together. Because of this, police officers are incredibly reluctant and often outright refuse to initiate or participate in misconduct investigations against their fellow officers, as finding the reported officer guilty of misconduct, especially extreme incidents like the application of excessive force resulting in death, is the end of that officer's career and the beginning of a criminal trial that could result in substantial amounts of jailtime for that officer.

               However, police misconduct is a detriment to all law enforcement officers, as it degrades the trust between the public and the police departments that serves them, which reduces public cooperation in the effort to stop crime. Police officers must keep that in mind as they deal with an incident of misconduct. 

           Police departments recognize the inherent problems posed by police misconduct, which is why many departments have instituted measures to solve police misconduct. There are technological applications such as the body-worn camera and the automatic vehicle locator (AVL) that allow for better oversight over police officers and their activities. Body cameras are always recording and can capture an officer's interactions with the public and how that officer solves problems, which allows command officers to better evaluate and impose consequences on that officer, while also allowing the public to seek the truth as to what happened in a specific interaction via the Freedom of Information Act, and widely circulate the footage of the incident in order to threaten the officer and his or her department with political consequences for failing to punish those responsible for the incident. Automatic vehicle locators allow dispatchers to track in real time where squad cars are located, giving command officers a good idea of where officers are at all times. Both of these applications also help police officers, as body-worn cameras are proven to reduce complaints against officers, and automatic vehicle locators help dispatchers and command officers coordinate emergency responses while also helping police officers report their location in the event of an emergency.

             Many departments have also taken steps to change how they hire and train new officers. In many places, there are now minimum education requirements to be hired and to get promoted, which ensures that new officers are well-versed in the laws and have gone through the experience of college, which exposes them to new ideologies and ways of thinking. Departments also run exhaustive background checks and conduct multiple oral interviews in order to vet candidates based on a candidate's character traits, like integrity, reliability, and honesty, to name a few traits that departments look for. In addition to all of this, officers are trained on ways to avoid police misconduct and how to report it if they see it, as well as the consequences of not reporting incidents. Officers are also trained on de-escalation and communication, which helps to avoid a use of force that would injure or kill a suspect. New officers learn these skills in the academy, and will continue to attend trainings on these skills throughout their career.

There is risk of societal harm by threatening the administration of justice and eroding the trust between the police institutions and citizens through police misconduct. 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. This can lead to a miscarriage of justice and sometimes the obstruction of justice and blue code of silence. Incidents of unethical or criminal misconduct can affect the officer's ability to testify in both criminal and civil trials. Which in fact, may result in direct civil liability for the agency, and may affect the agency's ability to defend itself in other, unrelated civil trials. A new study showed that there is increased killing of police in cities that experienced Black Lives Matter protests then those that did not. Therefore, reducing police misconduct is essential to the productivity of a department, as well as maintain positive community-police relations. Often, this relationship is measured by the amount and type of citizen complaints. Education has proven to be a protective factor against citizen complaints.

In order to make a change, we must first ensure that we are informing one another of the problem that police misconduct is. Now that you have some basic knowledge on what police misconduct is and the different ways that it can present itself, it is time to take a stand. The next step in making a change is to stand together and let our voices be heard. To let your voice be heard, please join our cause by taking a few moments to sign this petition against police brutality. 

National Action Against Police Brutality

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Palmiotto, Michael. Police Misconduct: A Reader for the 21st Century. Prentice Hall, 2001.

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Reisig, Michael Dean, and Robert J. Kane. The Oxford Handbook of Police and Policing. Oxford University Press, 2019.

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Woodward, Aylin. “Research Shows There Are at Least 6 Proven Ways to Reduce Police Brutality - and 2 Strategies That Don't Work.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 3 June 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/research-based-methods-of-reducing-police-violence-2020-6.