The Blue Wall of Silence - Term Paper Example

? THE BLUE WALL OF SILENCE of the Topic: The Blue Wall of Silence ‘Politics is the last resort for the scoundrels’ opined George Bernard Shaw. There are several other professions vying for this ‘honor’, but police department comes a close second. In a given administrative area when the police department works in tandem with politicians, disaster awaits the common man. Both these departments are like two edges of the same sword. The concept “The Blue Wall of Silence” is first coined in New York, USA to describe the friendly and protective disposition of the police personnel in defense of their colleagues in the department and that is done for a wrong cause. Their misconduct is not only tolerated but accepted and defended. Whistle in an important little instrument in the life of policemen but when he does not blow it against a fellow policeman who deserves to be reprimanded and punished he adds one more brick to “The Blue Wall of Silence.” The difference between the politician and the policeman is, the job of the former is for a fixed term, and the latter will render disservice to the people till the age of retirement. The saving grace for this harsh observation is the statement is not applicable to all. A microscopic minority of honest people exists amongst the police personnel as well and the rare find of a duty-conscious, law abiding police hero excites the Hollywood movie-makers. Police force works under tremendous pressure. In every case fast results are demanded by the aggrieved party, but being part of the law enforcing agency it has to follow the rules and while doing so, an investigating officer has pressure building at the back of his mind, that his actions and reporting are liable for legal scrutiny. The greatest bane of working in the police department is the political interference in their day to day functioning. Every accused person is a voter and expects that his elected representative comes to his rescue, even if one has committed an act of offence. To face demonstrations and protests of the people is part of their life and every police officer is suspect and corrupt from the perspective of the public. Police service is not like any other service. In some details it is tougher than the army service. The army personnel are generally busy and work under perilous circumstances in times of war. War ends, and their harsh responsibility is over to a great extent. For the policemen, the call of duty is 24x7 hours and they have to deal with different types of personalities, of varying temperaments. They face pressure constantly to solve cases with breakneck speed, and receive rebuke from higher authorities who sometimes want them to perform the impossible. In the discharge of their duties, some mistakes are committed and they are naturally inclined to go to the rescue of their colleagues, who stray from the path of law, rules and regulations applicable to the police force, resort to illegal brutality especially when dealing with the hardened criminals and repeat offenders. They have no misgivings about their stance and quote offences committed by people like taking bribes, stealing goods and money. Police officers have their own convention of defending their colleagues and taking them to task when necessary. Taking money or property in the form of bribes and kickbacks is viewed seriously, as they affect the morale of the department, and such offences are reported to the appropriate authorities for action. Policemen have also been awarded strict punishment on use of excessive force and also against practice of racism. In November, 2012, a federal jury in Chicago gave a judgment in favor of a complainant and against the city on a claim that the city had a persistently prevalent custom or practice of shielding officers from citizen complaints. The suit had been brought by a female bartender who had been beaten by an off-duty officer. Such a practice was concealment and suppression of investigations into police misconduct and it was an unwritten “code of silence” in the police department. The jury found the officer guilty and that he also conspired with others in violating the color law and awarded $850,000 in damages. (2013 (1) AELE Mo. L. J. 101)As a convention, no police officer wants that their men and colleagues get into a situation wherein serious punishment awaits them, which at times may cost their job. Police officials are also permanently at war with drugs, gangs and acts of horror unleashed by the terrorists. Urban police force faces uphill tasks relating to white collar crimes. They are continuously at loggerheads with the forces of darkness. Unity! And what sins are committed in the name of unity! This is the meaning in the contest of what we mean by the Blue Wall of Silence. It is the unity of the police officers, not from the angle of trade unionism, but at the psychological level. They will not parry any questions; will not provide logical reasoning for supporting their accused brother-officers. Their act is neither legal nor moral. It is the exhibition of stern loyalty with the fear that one may find oneself in the same position as compared to the accused officer. There are instances when shocking cases of police brutality came to the notice of the community, they voiced their protests and asked for the removal of such officers from the community. It is impossible to reform such hardened police officers with criminal mentality and as a deterrent to other serving officers, they should be summarily dismissed from service, their property should be confiscated and trials should be conducted against them speedily and exemplary punishment should be given to them to curb the Blue Wall of Silence that exists at all levels of police force. Of late, some serious thinking is going on in the administrative circles of the police force. Until recently, those who managed the police administration viewed bribery mainly as an image of the ethical deficiency of concerned police officers. They challenged this lacuna in the administration by discreetly screening candidates for police cadres and relentlessly tracking candidates with the record of moral turpitude and made efforts to get rid of them from their posts before their bad conduct engulfed through the agency. This disposition often named as the “bad apple” theory of police dishonesty, has been the focus of vehement disapproval of late. (Carl B. Klockars et al.) A few righteous police officers need the backing of the vigilant community to tear down the Blue Wall of Silence. It is like the double-edged sword. It hurts the victims of police inhumaneness by preventing them from getting justice and the upright police officers who are punished for choosing to cross the Blue Wall of Silence. It protects the police officers who disseminate the crime of inhumaneness. Since it has turned out to be somewhat like the heritage of the police department, the new recruits to the force take to the same wrong values as they have a long way to go in the course of their careers and as such they cannot afford to antagonize their senior officials. The Blue Wall of Silence is thus a hurdle to the course of justice. The police force becomes permanently suspect in the eyes of the community when such cases come to their notice by direct experience and through the print and electronic media. Legally, the police officers are not allowed to form trade unions and have other arrangements as grievances-solving machinery. But such administrative arrangements do not possess the aggressiveness, effectiveness and the bargaining power of the trade unions. As such the police officers depend on each other as to what they consider as the moral support. In many cases, allegiance to the Blue Wall of Silence is merely following the instructions of the senior officers, whether they are morally right or wrong. From the standpoint of the one who follows the instructions from the higher-ups there is nothing wrong in their reactions. The definition of work culture and responsibilities has undergone substantial change in the course past few decades. They are continuously fighting wars on drugs and terrorists. Slight laxity on their part may endanger the security of the state. Their lives and the security of the members of their families are under threat by the anti-social elements. As such each one of them undergoes specialized training courses to challenge different types of threats. They are provided with latest weapons and they hardly have any other option but to be aggressive and on many occasions they have to take split-second decisions in situations like either ‘shoot’ or ‘get shot.’ They cannot be expected to be kind in dealing with a brutal terrorist. There is no denying the fact that an extremely traumatized personality lies within the blue uniform, due the pressure and nature of work. Police officials have to deal with varied types of offenders. They are from remote country, inner-city and posh urbanite areas. Their profiles vary. They are uneducated, well-educated, petty robbers, clever computer-savvy cheats, killers, smugglers, drug suppliers and drug traders, terrorists and international level conmen, those who indulge in economic and white-collar crimes and some of them innocents too! Each individual is a special case. Since the police officer has accepted the post, he has to function with due caution to protect the dignity and honor of the uniform. If crimes are committed by men who are supposed to protect the community from committing the crimes, the meaning of police administration comes to naught. No one can condone the custodial deaths that occur often due to police brutality. To protect perpetrators of such crimes is an affront to the judicial system of the country. Just like various types of reformation processes are experimented on the prisoners, programs on similar lines must be held as part of the in-service training of the police force to get rid of brutality from their mindset. Such refresher courses and counseling sessions conducted on an ongoing basis are bound to bring rich dividend for the police administration and it will improve discipline in the police force and create a relaxed atmosphere. A permanent cell that deals with issues could be one such measure that would soften the hearts of the police-force. The root cause of the police brutalities are their negative thought processes. As such their thought processes need to be changed with effective counseling. When the thoughts are changed, the mind is changed; when the mind is changed, the man is changed; when majority of the police offices turn humane, the Blue Wall of Silence vanishes into the thin air. No doubt, there are genuine difficulties in running a rehabilitation program in the police environment. As stated earlier police officials have to cope up with many other competing and compelling priorities. But the show has to go on and the system has to change. The ship of spirituality has to tackle the waves in the form of obstacle of the Blue Wall of Silence. When police thoughts and spiritual thoughts interact, benevolent results would emerge. What seems to be an impossible task will become possible with the dedicated efforts of the community, enlightened leadership of the police administration and non-interference by the vested interests and the politicians in the day to day working of the police force? The Blue Wall of Silence can be dented. Interaction with the police has become the most tortuous experience for the common man. Police interrogation and other procedures of torture cause most systematic suppression to the spirit of human being. One faces police brutalities during the investigation (pre-conviction period) and also in the post-conviction period. The slow-moving judicial process in itself is a torture for the concerned individual. Police department is the mighty government machinery. An individual generally faces the resources crunch and the will-crunch to fight for justice. Moreover, all laws, just because they are the laws of the land, are not impeccable disclosures. A difficult law applied in a foulest manner by the unhelpful and brute police officials, is the ultimate misfortune for the common man. Such a law, if not amended or withdrawn quickly, the police authorities will take the maximum advantage of the helpless situation of the victim, and that can ruin the delicate social structure based on human relationships. Embroiled in such unfriendly system of jurisprudence and police administration, the affected man gets physically, emotionally, and economically crushed. The community, print and electronic media, sociologists and administrators can no more afford to have a blind look at the Blue Wall of Silence. It is a stigma on the society and the police administration. Reporting actionable irregularities needs to be made mandatory by the witnessing police official. The guilt of the police official, who has seen the offence being committed, should be treated on par with the man who has actually committed the offence. To blow the whistle needs to be an obligatory duty and an independent high powered committee consisting of members from the press and the community and also a representative from the police force should handle and supervise all the cases. Steps are being initiated on these lines and some tangible action is being taken from this perspective. The use of civilians as an alternative to police officers in misconduct inquiries is based, in part, on the plea that police inspective skills are not necessarily unique to policing and can be gained through preparation, learning and growth. But even more significantly, it is argued that because civilians are not police officers they are not bound by the standards or benefits of the police culture and are therefore more likely to provide open and impartial investigations. The civilian aspect also provides added guarantee to a disbelieving public that complaint inquiries will be fair and unbiased and not overly compassionate to, or prejudiced by, police concerns. (Christopher Murphy et al.)Police forces are supposed to fight the powers of darkness and they cannot practice what they are fighting against. If allowed to continue, the Blue Wall of Silence may lead to anarchy. The self-serving and lethargic bureaucracy must also own the responsibility for the continuance of the Blue Wall of Silence. Bureaucracy turns a blind eye to the irregularities in the police department for two reasons. One, they often have to take obligations from the department to serve their own interest. Such an action of irregularity might have been committed at the express oral instructions of a particular influential politician. Thus both work to the mutual advantage. No details of such grave incidents are revealed to the community by terming it as “secret information” and it is not deemed fit to reveal it in “public interest.” The initial enthusiasm of the community against a particular case of grave injustice gradually wanes, and the police officials, by practice, know well how cash upon psychology of the people. The Blue Wall of Silence is the enemy number one of transparency in administration. It cannot be defended in any department, let alone in an important and sensitive department like the Police. The Police Department may have its compulsions but its exercises cannot be at the cost of public morality. Government may even think of enacting a special legislation to permit the police personnel to have a trade union of their own and chalk out agenda of their rights and responsibilities. No department is above the Constitution of the country and no one, except the President, has the power to condone punishable offences. Policing is a consequential action to the needs of the society. If bureaucracy and police force join hands to strengthen the Blue Wall of Silence, doomsday is not far off for the democratic system of the country. If the police department commits a gender-based offence under the protective wings of the Blue Wall of Silence, it is a serious situation and an important issue from the moral and sociological points of views. No irregularity can be condoned on the basis of convention. If misconducted is overlooked at one Police Station, it will set forth a chain reaction and other officers will take encouragements from such wrong precedents. Conclusion A corrupt President can be impeached. A corrupt government may be voted out of power in the elections. As such the code of silence in the Police Department can never be accepted and stern measures should be taken to demolish the Blue Wall of Silence. More reliance needs to be placed on community oriented policing. Any police official accused of and prima-facie found guilty of moral turpitude and corruption should be summarily dismissed and the onus of proving not-guilty should be on the accused. So also, excessive use of force and racially discriminatory practices should demand instant arrest of the concerned official. The prime duty of the law enforcement agency is to instill public trust and the police officers are expected to perform their duties and implement strategies for the good of the society. Every Police Station must have a civilian review board and other mechanisms to monitor its functioning. Cop is a public servant and the public is not subservient to cops. No cop should be allowed to take advantage of his position and uniform and make profits out of his post. References List 2013 (1) AELE Mo. L. J. 10. AELE Home Page --- Publications Menu --- Seminar Information ISSN 1935-0007.Civil Liability Law Section – January 2013; Code of Silence Litigation: Officer Use of Force By Carl B. Klockars, Carl B, Ivkovich, Sanja Kutnjak, Harver, William E, and Haberfeld, Maria R. The Measurement of Police Integrity; National Institute of Justice, May 2000 Murphy, Dr. Christopher, McKenna, Paul F. Police Investigating Police: A Critical Analysis of the Literature. Nov 21, 2012 - Police ethics and integrity: breaking the blue code of silence. Policing & Society, 15(2), 145-165. Read More