Drug-Related Police Corruption - Essay Example

Corruption: Drug-related Police corruption within the inner cities Drug related corruption has increased over the past decade mainly due to active involvement of many police officers in such crime. The main motivators are money and power that makes police officers get actively involved into such drug related businesses. The officers who should be adopting measures to protect such crimes take participation in such scandals and even protect the drug dealers. Though many officers are been arrested for being part of such corruption but still there are honest officers who perform their duties in order to protect cities from such corruption. Keywords – drug related corruption, Rampart scandal, police corruption, drug dealers, and Sisyphean task. Police, drugs and corruption Drug related police corruption is the most prevalent form of corruption across the cities and such a corruption has taken the form of various ways in relation to other corruptions. The drug related corruption differs from one city to another. The police instead of taking active measures to protect the city from such form of crimes indulge into protecting the criminals who perform such kind of activities in the cities (Payne & Gainey, 2005). Police not only protect these criminals from such crime but also take active participation in taking commission from criminals and even comprise of stealing drugs or even money that is associated with such illegal transaction. Police in many cities also join hands with many drug dealers and engage into illegal searches, stealing drugs and exporting such drugs to other regions so as to gain the maximum profit share from such a transaction (Ford, 2010). The main reason behind the increased rate of corruption in the cities is the involvement of police in such crime who are appointed to safeguard the society but in order to make money gets involved in these types of scandals. The common motive behind such drug related corruption is money but as per research conducted by GAO or General Accounting Office in the New York City there are other form of motives behind such drug related corruption such as vigilante justice and power (Parkar, 2009). This form of corruption is prevalent in the inner cities in the form of small group of officers who are actively involved in the drug related operations and take active measures to protect as well support each other in such activities that leads to high degree of corruption in the cities. However on basis of certain research study that is conducted on this particular topic indicates that majority of the police officers are still honest and this is the reason behind some cities being totally clean of any such criminal activities (Feiling, 2009). The drug related police corruption comprise of certain factors that are associated with it such as unquestioned loyalty, code of silence as the police culture and cynicism towards the justice system of criminals. However these are not the only factors that are associated with police related drug corruption but there are certain management related factors also that has an impact on such corruption (Payne & Gainey, 2005). These factors comprise of ineffective field supervision and headquarters, internal weaknesses of the department towards investigative practices and structures, and failure on behalf of the top officials of the police department in terms of promoting integrity throughout the system so that none of the members of the department get involved in any such activities that would bring down the image or rather the reputation of the whole system and even cause a serious impact on the society (Feiling, 2009). These factors lead to more of drug related corruption in the city and even give power to the criminals and various drug dealers to carry on their operations effectively in the cities. The police department plays a major role in not only supporting such criminals but also helping them to create a more diverse impact on the society. The reasons being money that can only be gained through such illegal measures in a great amount and not understanding the responsibilities that police department have towards the society and the active involvement that should be taken by them so as to end such corruption from the root level (Parkar, 2009). Most common preventive measures that are taken to restrict the participation of police in drug related cases is through making commitment department wise towards integrity, incorporating certain changes in the culture of police, enabling more of command or control by the higher authority on the entire police system, putting more emphasis on the educational and age requirements for the police officers, improving more on accountability measures and enhancing the integrity training of all the police officers so that they are able to link their dignity with the job they are performing, and even focusing on community policing (Feiling, 2009). However in all of the measures the higher authority plays a very significant role towards exercising control over the department so that they take measures to control the drug related criminal activities and do not get involved into such activities. As per certain data of the drug related cases in the United States it was predicted that there were a total of 221 arrest cases of police officers that was related to such drug cases (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). There lies a wide range of criminal offenses that are directly linked with that of drug related corruption. The most prevalent drug in such offenses are those of cocaine that creates the maximum impact on the society and also involves huge amounts of money in it export and import and also the intermediaries gain a desirable amount from such activities. There are certain agencies mainly the larger ones in drug cases that use older officers in the system for such practice as they are not so prone towards losing their jobs in comparison to those individuals who are more likely to lose their job after they have been arrested in case of any drug scandal (Parkar, 2009). Scenario of drug war related scandals Over the years the scandals that are associated with such drug cases has changed as more number of rules and regulations govern the society there are more number of high profile scandals that affects the society. These scandals include the Rampart scandal that took place in California to the scandal that took place in Texas known as Tulia disgrace. Every police corruption is associated with millions of headlines that are forecasted in the news channel but there are such cases may be thousands of those million cases that go unreported for the public (Campos and Pradhan, 2007). In the year 2005 there were almost 400 such drug related and other corruption cases of police that was opened by FBI as stated by the report of GAO or General Accounting Office and comprised of cases both the local and state police cases that had led to conviction of a total of 300 officers from the system. There are very less evidence that states how police corruption is related to the drug war. The nature of drug trade is more of consensual form that makes it very difficult to gather data against the willing sellers and the buyers. More of illegal searches, fabricating evidences, etc., are some of the common practices of police department (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). The officers that are involved in enforcing law throughout the cities also needs to accept the fact that though their efforts are strong but often do not lead to fruitful results for the society. There is a lot of investment that is done on such law-enforcement measures that are in terms of billions of dollars so as to arrest drug offenders and millions of them though get arrested still drugs are becoming cheaper and are readily available across the globe (Freeman, 2006). The present scenario is so worse that it is a regular routine of the police officers to see one drug seller arrested to be replaced by someone else. Though there are large amounts of drugs that are confiscated and seized by police officers but the trading power of such crime is so strong that more volumes of drugs are poured in cities in comparison to the amount that is being seized. It has been termed that the law enforcement on drugs is more of Sisyphean task that do not result into a very fruitful outcome at any situation. The officers are influenced by drug dealers and various big agencies in the form of illegal drugs and cash and most of the officers cannot resist themselves from staying away from such attractive offerings which in turn leads to more of abuse and corruption (Campos and Pradhan, 2007). Recent drug related scandals In the year 2000 in a small town in Texas known as Tulia 43 residents were arrested due to some drug related scandal. The only evidence against such people was a white cover officer who had fled away so that no theft charges fall on him. The workers had described the officer as a compulsive liar. This incident and involvement of an officer in the scandal had led to harsh sentences of all the accused men. In 2001 there were eight officers in San Antonio in Texas who were arrested in a drug sting on attempts of protecting operations of delivery of cocaine (Barkan and Bryjak, 2011). The higher regulatory bodies of the region had invested a total amount of $200, 000 for 2years in various narcotic sting operations. The State of California in the years 2000 and 2001 has been involved in the Rampart scandal as the majority of the officers in the anti-drug unit of Los Angeles were active participants in corruption such as murder, torture, drug dealing, and accusing more of innocent people in the crime. The power that these officers had to control such crime was being misused (Freeman, 2006). This scandal came into limelight when an officer of the police department was caught stealing cocaine worth of eight pounds that too from the evidence locker of the department. There was even a major police scandal that had erupted in the region of Oakland which involved four main officers of the narcotics department who were arrested on misconduct of charges. There were overall 60 charges that were imposed on such officer’s comprising of conspiracy to prevent justice, false police reports, kidnapping, assault, false arrests, filing all kinds of false documents, etc (Campos and Pradhan, 2007). In 2001 there were police officers in South Florida who were found to be guilty in drug trafficking by even using their patrol cars so as to transport drugs for the agents or the drugs dealers. In the year 2000 two of the veteran officers of Chicago who were part of the elite drug fighting unit of the region were arrested as being involved corruption, planting evidence, robbery, running a drug ring from Chicago to Miami and even torturing suspects. The largest anti-corruption sting operation that was undertaken by FBI and has proved to be the largest operation in its history is when 29 officers in Puerto Rico were arrested for having drug-related charges (Barkan and Bryjak, 2011). Reference Barkan, S. E. and Bryjak, G. J. (2011). Fundamentals of Criminal Justice: A Sociological View. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Campos, J. E. and Pradhan, S. (2007). The Many Faces of Corruption: Tracking Vulnerabilities at the Sector Level. World Bank Publications. Washington: World Bank Publications. Feiling, T. (2009). The Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over the World. London: Penguin UK. Ford, J. T. (2010). Drug Control: U. S. Counternarcotics Cooperation with Venezuela Has Declined. New York: DIANE Publishing. Freeman, L. (2006). State of Siege: Drug-related Violence and Corruption in Mexico: Unintended Consequences of the War on Drugs. Washington: Washington Office on Latin America. Parkar, S. (2009). White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay. New Jersey: Thomas Nelson Inc. Payne, B. K. and Gainey, R. R. (2005). Drugs and Policing: A Scientific Perspective. New York: Charles C Thomas Publisher. U.S. Department of Justice. (1992). Drugs Crime, and the Justice System. New York: DIANE Publishing. Read More