Corruption In The New York Police Department

Police corruption can be defined as a malpractice by police officers through which they breach their social contract misuse their authority for personal gain. The acts of corruption by the police department in NYC have been rampant over the decades. Series of scandals in the police service involving quite a number of officers has drawn the attention of many, questioning the level of standards of ethics and integrity in the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Police officers are human and therefore it is difficult to successfully create test that can accurately predict the conduct of an officer making it cumbersome to curb corruption from the onset. Another challenge in dealing with police corruption is their high variability to investigatory

responses and they are not revealed to the public. There is no research that gives an explanation to allegations leveled against corrupt police officers (Meese and Ortmeier, 2004). Failure of citizens to report cases of police corruption also make it difficult to fight this vice in the police department. Thorough screening methods should be applied during recruitment to reduce the possible chances of an individual that is going to be hired might become corrupt. Another important way of reducing police corruption is by implemented reforms and creating external oversight to keep police officers on check. Stun action should be taken against officers found engaging in any kind of misconduct and serve as an example to those who might be having such thoughts. Another way of reducing cases of malpractice in police service is by providing adequate training on ethics for all officers constantly during their careers encompasses the virtue of loyalty (Meese and Ortmeier, 2004).