Misuse of Police Powers

Within our police system in America, there are gaps and loopholes that give leeway to police officials who either abuse the authority given to them or do not represent the ethical standards that they are expected to live up to. Because of the nature of police work, there is a potential for deterioration of these ethical and moral standards through deviance, misconduct, corruption, and favoritism. Although these standards are set in place, many police are not held accountable for their actions and can easily get by with the mistreatment of others. While not every police abuses his or her power, the increasingly large percentage that do present a problem that must be recognized by the public as well as those in charge of police departments throughout our country. Police officials are abusing their power and authority through three types of misconduct known as malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance and these types are being overlooked by management personnel who rarely intervene even though they know what is happening. Misconduct is wrong because it violates rights and cause people to be wrongly accused of crimes or be found not guilty and set free when they are still an endangerment to other people. The public needs to be educating on what is happening in the police system in hopes that someone will speak out to protect citizens from being violated by police officers.

The article Police Integrity: Rankings of Scenarios on the Klockars Scale by “Management Cops,” conveys that the different scenarios for each definition and the nature of police work make this corruption difficult to specifically define (Vito 153). Since it so challenging to correctly define, the three broad categories of malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance ...

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...e punishments. An article in the Criminal Justice Review states that “controlling police corruption is difficult, if not impossible (Vito 153).” This is because typically the only people who know that these crimes are going on are the other police officers within a department. Police officers generally fail to report their colleagues and therefore much of this deviance goes unnoticed.

Works Cited

O'Connor, T.R. "Police Deviance and Ethics." PoliceCrimes.com. 11 Nov. 2005. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.

Vito, Gennaro F., Scott Wolfe, George E. Higgins, and William F. Walsh. "Police Integrity: Rankings Reprints of Scenarios on the Klockars Scale by “Management Cops”." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. June 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

Weitzer, Ronald, and Steven A. Tuch. "Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct." JSTOR. Aug. 2004. Web. 19 Mar. 19 2015.