Obscene Publications Squad and Drugs Squad - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The scandals of the 70s and 80s include different abuse of justice in cases involving Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, the Carl Bridgewater affair, and the operations of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad where suspects were beaten up, false swearing took place and confessional evidence messed up. The more recent instances investigated by the Metropolitan Police Service and allied forces again find officers of specialist squads trying to benefit from their position through theft, resale of seized drugs, and safeguarding of criminals. However, the cases and significance of police corruption have been gaining importance gradually and coming to the attention of the police service. In 1998 the Association of Chief Police Officers set up a Presidential Task Force on Corruption to promote good practice management. The inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary formulated suggestions to enhance integrity within the police department.

Abusive policing and discrimination may cause uninvited deaths and injuries and also frustration and distrust. This hampers the concept of democracy and invalidates the police’s role of being the guardians of people’s freedom and security. One needs to remember that such corruption would demean human rights. In fact, of late racial discrimination amongst the police force has led to different investigations across the world.

The present paper looks into the aspects of police malpractices and their roles in the case construction and profiling of suspects. The paper refers to the specific case of the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation and provides the detail of the process of its investigation. The first section defines and explains police corruption in the UK. The second section looks into the details of the murder case. The third section provides an overview of the extent of police powers and the rights of the citizens to complain. The fourth chapter provides instances of some abuse of police powers in different cases and instances. The fifth section underlines the methods of preventing police corruption undertaken already by legal bodies. \ ...Download file to see next pages Read More