Blue Curtain Police Corruption

Police corruption is defined as “an act or omission…characterized by a police officer’s misuses of the official position motivated in significant part by the achievement of personal gain.” Finding corruption in the police force is a difficult task for supervising officers. Police are believed to follow a basic rule among other police, known as the Blue Curtain. The Blue Curtain is a way of saying line officers will not inform supervising officers of immoral actions committed by another line officer. In this study, police integrity is brought into question. To help evaluate police integrity and detect police misconduct, the Klockars Scale is used. The Klockars Scale provides a simple way to investigate how officers will act in different circumstances.

Punishments included: none, verbal reprimanding, written reprimanding, suspension without pay, demotion in rank, and dismissal from the department. The results of the Klockars Scale Study show many commonalities between supervising officers and line officers. For instance, the overall highest ranked immoral scenario was the theft of a watch from the crime scene, mostly because this was considered “tampering with evidence.” From there, the next highest ranking went to accepting bribes from a speeding motorist, theft of money from a found wallet, acceptance of drinks to ignore a bar closing after legal hours, and finally the use of excessive force on a car thief. However, the scenarios not highly regarded as immoral included covering up a DUI accident involving another police officer, accepting holiday gifts from merchants and/or free meals, and accepting discounts while on beat. After supervising officers to line officers, only one difference was found regarding their department policy; covering up a DUI accident involving another police officer. However, management officers ranked this offense as number