Police Ethics-Chapter 11, Types of Police Misconduct Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Police Ethics-Chapter 11, Types of Police Misconduct Deck (40)
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1
Q

“All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”

A

Lord Acton, 1834-1902

2
Q

Police deviance

A

when people deviate, they break norms of conduct that are prescribed for them.

3
Q

Norms

A

cultural values, moral tenets, social customs, codified laws.

4
Q

Cops as Legal Actors- Multiple Standards of Conduct

A
  1. Police are legal actors
  2. Police are political actors
  3. Police are administrative actors
5
Q

in responding to the desires of their communities, the police must be ___

A

political actors…streetcorner politicians

6
Q

Who labeled “streetcorner politicians”

A

William K Muir

7
Q

Cops as Administrative Actors

A

police must live by the rules of conduct set down by police professionals in police dept General Order Manuals. This set makes up the “nuts and bolts” of police work

8
Q

Cops as legal actors

A

police must know the codified law, charge appropriately, investigate effectively and write reports.

9
Q

When dealing with suspects and citizens the police must also know ___or ___

A

procedural or case law

10
Q

police must answer to three separate sets of standards.

A

observe the law
respond to community
follow professional regulations

11
Q

Two questions must be asked of police misconduct for us to fit such misbehavior into its proper place in its typology
Once these two questions are answered, misconduct can be classified

A
  1. was the misconduct done in the name of personal gain.

2. did the misconduct involve the use of the police position of authority

12
Q

corruption of authority

A

using their legal authority to obtain personal rewards. ex: payoffs to protect criminal enterprises

13
Q

Shakedown

A

police demanding money from people in exchange for “letting them off easy”

14
Q

Graft

A

accepted on an individual basis, from a motorist in exchange for not giving a ticket

15
Q

Police Crime or professional crime

A

committing crimes while on duty. burlarizing busineses or residences. theft. This misconduct is to obtain personal gain, but they are not tradin goff their position of authority to do so

16
Q

Grass eating- two types

A

1st. accepting cash in exchange for not writing a moving violation, obtaining police discounts, eating free food, drinking free coffee.
2nd- involves the acceptance by some officers of the larger-scale, organized misconduct of others (meat-eating). grass eating invovles looking the other way and not reporting/taking action with regard to the personal gain-related misconduct of others.

17
Q

Meat Eating

A

involves proactive, systematic, organized payoffs. ex: narcotic officer accepting money on regular basis in exchange for not arresting certain drug dealers, Vice officers not arrested pimps, beat officers who shakedown businesses and demand protection money from them.

18
Q

slippery slope

A

when officers begin to deviate, they do so in small, incremental ways. Person strays from the norms and rules of conduct, he begins to slide down a slope that leads to greater forms of deviance.

19
Q

Slippery slope idea suggests that grass eating supports meat eating in two ways.

A
  1. first accepting small gifts such as free coffee or meals, eventually will begin to normalize accepting more significant gifts.
  2. grass eating involve looking the other way when meat eating occurs.
20
Q

Involves police misusing their position of authority but not for personal gain.

A

Noble cause corruption

21
Q

transgressions against departmental regulations that are considered to be police misconduct. While these are sometimes serious volations, they are neither criminal nor corrupt in their nature. they are merely the product of ___

A

ineptitude–sleeping on duty, showing up late, writing poor reports, failing to respond to calls, ignoring orders.

22
Q

Being a ____ ___ involves having the intelligence, education, motivation and skill to get the job done and thus avoid ineptitude

A

competent police officer

23
Q

if an officer lacks any or all these traits of a competent police officer, he should be

A

retrained, reeducated, or dismissed

24
Q

Most techniques used for dealing with ineptitude involve proative, ___ strategies that bring change without impacting negatively upon an officers career

A

no-fault

25
Q

Ineptitude often occurs almost inadvertently, usually without ____

A

malice

26
Q

Personal misconduct is important and it has great significance in two ways

A
  1. it may be of general relevance to the image of a police dept.
  2. the way the officer behaves off duty is directly controlled by the kind of person that officer is.
27
Q

___behavior is just as critical as on duty behavior as an indicator of police ethicss

A

off-duty

28
Q

Presidential Misconduct

A
  1. Corruption of Authority- George H W Bush issued a pardon to everyone involved in Iran/Contra scandal. One of the pardoned indiv was going to argue in court that he was ordered to commit such crime. Bush saved his own skin
  2. Noble Cause Corruption- Pres Reagan allowed Oliver North to deliver arms to Contras using drug dealers to accomplish a criminal task.
  3. Criminal Behavior- Watergate scandal.
  4. Ineptitude- Pres Carter inability to solve Iran Hostage crisis
  5. Personal Misconduct- Clinton was impeached for getting a blow job in White House.
29
Q

corruption of authority

A

police misconduct involving personal gain on part of errant officers and misuse of an officers power

30
Q

general orders manuals

A

internal regulations constructed by all police depts

31
Q

graft

A

acquisition of money, goods or services thru dishonesty and involving taking advantage of one s official position

32
Q

grass eating

A

police misconduct that involves the acceptance of non-systematic graft or covering up of more serious corruption

33
Q

ineptitude

A

incompetence, sloth, lack of training

34
Q

meat eating

A

seriouis form of police corruption involving ongoing payoffs or graft

35
Q

personal misconduct

A

deviance that is off duty. may or may not become the subject of internal, dept investigation

36
Q

police crime

A

police misconduct involving personal gain, but not related to the official authority of the police

37
Q

police deviance

A

police behavior that goes against either legal or professional standards of conduct or against input obtained from the community under COP

38
Q

shakedowns

A

proactively obtaining money from citizens in exhcange for avoiding the performance of their official charge

39
Q

slippery slope

A

idea that misconduct can begin with small types of misbehavior and then expand and change into major corruption

40
Q

streetcorner politicians

A

Muir’s label for officers, refers to their exercise of power over citizens.