Police misconduct is inappropriate conduct and illegal actions taken by police officers.
Types of police misconduct Types of police misconduct include, among others:
Sexual misconduct Coerced false confession False arrest False imprisonment Evidence tampering Police perjury Witness tampering Police brutality Police corruption Racial profiling and other forms of Discrimination Conducting unwarranted arrests, surveillance, searches, or seizures in circumstances where a warrant is required by the law Off-duty misconductMartinelli TJ. (2007). Minimizing Risk by Defining Off-Duty Police Misconduct . The Police Chief. Noble cause corruption, where the officer believes the good outcomes justify bad behaviorMartinelli TJ. (2006). Unconstitutional Policing: The Ethical Challenges in Dealing with Noble Cause Corruption. Police Chief. Consuming or being under the influence of drugs or alcohol while on duty Violations of police procedural policies
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,Ferrell CE. (2003). Code of Silence: Fact or Fiction?. Police Chief. a 2005 survey found evidence that it exists.Westmarland L. (2005). Police Ethics and Integrity: Breaking the Blue Code of Silence. Policing and Society. 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. 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.
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.
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. Education is negatively correlated to misconduct, with better-educated officers receiving fewer complaints on average.No author. (2007).Annotated Bibliography on Performance of Officers with Bachelor's Degrees. The Police Chief. See also from same issue: Carter L, Wilson M. Measuring Professionalism of Police Officers.
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. The fact that most police officers enjoy broad discretion and minimal supervision has been cited as increasing opportunities for police misconduct.
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;Schafer JA. (2007). The Future of Police Image and Ethics. The Police Chief. future innovations in recording equipment could allow an officer's entire workday to be recorded. Some transparency advocates believe that such cameras should be installed in all police cruisers to ensure accountability. Some police departments have experimented with Taser cameras that automatically begin recording when the Taser is deployed. The Cato Institute recommends that police record all no-knock raids. 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.
Recording by witnesses has made a significant impact on the notability and handling of police incidence, such as the Rodney King beating.
Adoption of Body Worn Cameras
Although body worn cameras (BWCs) can record several situations involving law enforcement misbehavior, the key question is whether they're able to also prevent it. In an effort to enhance interactions between the police and the community, several police departments are beginning to use BWCs. Not all police departments are utilizing video recording technology. Law enforcement agencies who do not believe the new technology is necessary, who indicate a lack of support for BWC adoption from the agency's leadership and from patrol personnel, and who have privacy and cost-related concerns, report resistance to the use of BWCs. Police departments that registered a higher percentage of complaints for the excessive use of physical force are significantly more likely to be against the adoption of BWCs. Police agencies who have already purchased other types of recording technology have a substantially higher level of support for the use of BWCs. Law enforcement agencies located in US states with strong police unions are more likely to show resistance to the adoption of BWCs.
Studies on BWC toward police misconduct
Some studies suggest that body-worn cameras may offer benefits while others show either no impact or possible negative effects when it comes to police misbehavior and many police agencies choosing whether to use BWCs in hopes of reducing police misconduct or strengthen the police and community ties. As an example, some studies have examined the claimed benefits of BWCs, including the ability to reduce citizen complaints and police use of force. Early research claimed that using BWCs lowered both outcomes significantly, but several subsequent investigations have failed to find similar results.
Another study examines how BWCs are marketed as a technological improvement that will result in more pleasant interactions between police and residents. There have been attempts to explain how BWCs impact various policing outcomes, but little research has been done on how BWCs influence assaults on police. This study was limited to a few jurisdictions and has minimal relevance to a broader spectrum of police organizations; it nonetheless explores the relationship between BWCs and police victimization by focusing on total assaults and attacks with guns against police officers, using data from a sample of 516 police organizations. The data showed that BWC usage is negatively associated with police victimization. The study concludes that BWCs can help prevent the occurrence of both moderate and severe violence against police in a variety of circumstances and among a wide spectrum of law enforcement organizations.
Although there are numerous studies focusing on the implementation of BWCs in the hope of reducing police misconduct and the use of force by law enforcement toward citizens, there are others that underline the challenges that come with implementing BWCs. Techno-fixes by themselves may not necessarily resolve underlying issues of fractured community–police relations, including ongoing issues of racial and ethnic antagonism, and may even exacerbate these tensions.
Mobile devices As digital recording technology usage has increased, especially using cell phones, there have been more cases of civilians capturing video of alleged police misconduct. In response, members of law enforcement have begun using eavesdropping and wiretapping laws to charge civilians who record police without their knowledge. Some police organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Police support the prosecutions. In Illinois, from 1994 to 2014, recording police without consent was a class 1 felony that could carry a prison term of 15 years. In a May 2012 ruling, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the statute "likely violates the First Amendment's free-speech and free-press guarantees". On 30 December 2014, then-Governor Pat Quinn signed into law an amendment to the Statute, PA 98–1142, which decriminalized the recording of law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties in public places or in circumstances in which the officers have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
Most charges involving recording police are dropped or dismissed as courts have ruled on-duty police officers in public have no reasonable expectation of privacy. However, police "can use vaguer charges, such as interfering with a police officer, refusing to obey a lawful order, obstructing an arrest or police action, or disorderly conduct". Perjury put along with this is lying under oath and giving false charges. Arrests for these charges are more common, as are incidents of police illegally confiscating cameras, deleting evidence or misinforming citizens they cannot film. This video evidence has played a key role in raising public awareness of police misconduct during and after an incident such as the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant, Death of Ian Tomlinson, Robert Dziekański death.
Cost of police misconduct
United States
The United States has lost millions to police misconduct: CityYears of CostTotal CostBaltimore2010-2014$12 millionBoston2005-2015$36 millionChicago2004-2014$521 millionCleveland2004-2014$8.2 millionDallas2011-2014$6.5 millionMinneapolis2011-2014$9.3 millionNew York City2006-2011$348 millionPhoenix2010-2014$5.6 millionPhiladelphia2010-2014$54.3 millionLos Angeles2002-2011$101 millionOakland1990-2014$74 millionWashington, D.C.2010-2014$30.5 million In 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that during a five-year period the 10 United States cities with the largest police departments had spent over $1.4 billion on police misconduct settlements. In between the years of 2010 and 2014 the total annual cost of police misconduct settlements increased, declining only in 2012, and then followed by the highest total in 2014 of $248.7 million.
Largest police misconduct settlements With the rise of body worn cameras by police departments, settlements have also increased in both the size of the settlement and frequency of settlements. In 2015, Eric Garner's family settled with New York City, and was awarded $5.9 million in a wrongful death suit at the hands of a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer. While Garner's case was more recent, and perhaps more known to the general public, it was not New York City's most expensive individual settlement due to police misconduct. Abner Louima was abused by NYPD personnel while in custody in 1997 and settled in 2001 with the city of New York for $8.75 million.