Abstract
The following paper is dedicated to analyzing the prerequisites, state and consequences of drugs-related police corruption. Importance of highlighting results of research on the following issues is connected with the fact that trafficking in drugs, facilitated with the help of police corruption, has a great negative impact on drug abuse, especially in large cities with a high incidence of drug trafficking. Apart from studying the nature and extent of known drug-related police corruption, I will single out factors, commonly being associated with drug-related police corruption, including violence, as well as study current policies and programs, aimed at combating these issues. In conclusion special attention will be dedicated to describing features, which allow differentiating drug-related police corruption from other types of police corruption, main associated threats and the ways, which are being employed, to combat it.
Introduction
Corruption is one of most wide-spread forms of misconduct in police forces. Analysis of different types of materials (e.g., reports, interviews, academic publications) shows that drug-related corruption in considerably different by comparison with other forms of corruption. Nevertheless, existence of wide variety of different definitions of corruption prevents us from singling out peculiarities of this form of corruption at this stage of developing the paper.
The difference can be explained by the fact that tight bonds exist between drug-related police corruption and a number of other phenomena, including police culture, ineffective organization of police structures and weaknesses of internal investigation systems, police drug use and related vulnerability, possibilities of affiliation with criminal structures, as well as police brutality and even violence. Main sources of police drug corruption are currently being associated with pitfalls in terms of organizational structure, leadership, community relations and trainings, being launched in police.
Topicality of considering drug-related police corruption lies in particular societal danger of such form of corruption as it promotes consumption of drugs and drug abuse, and, therefore, represents significant threat for public health. Importance of the problem under study, as well as a range of drug police corruption recent scandals in such states as Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina etc., calls forth the need to get the understanding of current extent of the issue, its peculiarities and connections with other issues, and existing policies and recommendations on tackling this problem.
Scope of the problem and its manifestations
Corruption in police departments is not a new issue within police departments of the U.S. Since the early development of police, its departments experienced issues related to policemen committing different kinds of misconduct aiming at acquiring personal gain (Lersch&Miechkowski, 2001, p.1).. Over the years the composition of these forms of misconduct has been continuously changing. These changes were to great extent determined by global changes, taking place in terms of political, social and economic relations. To my mind, corruption in the police can be viewed either in narrow or wide context.
Viewing corruption in wide context means considering lots of forms of police’s misconduct to fall within the scope of the notion “corruption”. Among them we may mention not only accepting bribes or gratitude, but variety of other behaviors, including verbal abuse of citizens, brutality or even violence (Lersch&Miechkowski, 2001, p.1). If earlier, gains, associated with police corruption were considered to be limited to financial ones, psychological gains are currently also being related to police drug corruption (vindication, recognition, or commendations).
Most wide-spread forms of drug-related corruption include accepting bribes from drug dealers (traffickers) in exchange for “tip” information regarding drug-related strategies; accepting bribes from drug dealers/traffickers in exchange for interference in the justice process and theft of drugs by the officer from property rooms or laboratories for personal consumption of drugs or their sale, street seizure of drugs from co summers or dealers, aimed at converting drugs to personal use, extorting drug traffickers for money, promising non-arrest or non-seizure of drugs, as well as committing robbery against drug traffickers, aiming at getting drugs for personal usage (Lersch&Miechkowski, 2001, p.2).
The great threat, which accompanies police drug corruption, lies in the fact that police officers are vulnerable to drug addiction due to the fact that they experience significant pressure at work, and feel the need to relax and forget about the issues, which make them tired (Lersch&Miechkowski, 2001, p.2). Thus sometimes police officers may falsify evidence or commit other types of procedural violations in order to get drugs for personal use. Here it is still important to pay attention to the specific influence of “police subculture”, which can be of special danger for young policemen, who have never been involved in the kind of communication, which is wide-spread in police. The fact that police officers may be engaged in consuming drugs escalates the threat of them becoming engaged into trafficking in drugs due to the fact that they already have relevant acquaintances.
Thus committing violations, falling within the scope of the notion “police drug corruption” can be beneficial for them also in terms of selling drugs and avoiding blackmail, which can lead to the fact that their professional reputation and career may be spoilt (Lersch&Miechkowski, 2001, p.2).
Among other related threats it is necessary to single out the fact that drug usage, trafficking and abuse is often accompanies by a wide range of social problems, which may include alcoholism and domestic violence (Das, 2001, p.15). In urban environment it is hard for police officers to control hotspots, where drug traffickers can be often detected without being involved into relations with them and acquainted with roles participants of the group play in its activities. Both the fact that police drug corruption can be accompanied by many other negative social phenomena and the need to study what is going on in drug trafficking gangs from inside puts extra pressure on police and stimulates police officers to become affiliated with the gangs. When starting with the aim of getting to know the activities of a group in a more precise manner, such an affiliation is likely to result in real involvement into the activities of the group. Moreover, such pressure can often result in police’s using violence, which presents another important aspect of police drug corruption.
Excessive use of force by police officers is understood not only as an important human rights concern, but a public health issue of considerable importance. In this regard it is necessary to mention that excessive use of force in police can be associated with such dimensions of violence as physical, sexual, psychological and neglectful ones (Cooper, Moore, Gruskin and Kriger, 2004, p.1109). Furthermore, what is also important is that police violence can have long-term repercussions regarding health of affected individuals.
As it was reported by Cooper, Moore, Gruskin and Kriger (2004), conditions for police using force excessively include so-called profiling (or hot-spotting), perceived pressure of officers to make arrests and discrimination. First two factors contribute to the fact that police starts practicing stops “for nothing” and thus prevents citizens from leading their normal life. Discrimination manifests itself in the fact that police officers can tend to stop people of particular race and appearance.
Extent of the problem
While corruption in police is a phenomenon, which is subjected to active development, I cannot help mentioning the fact that nowadays drug-related police corruption becomes more wide-spread than it was in the past. Furthermore, despite the fact that millions of dollars are annually being spent on law enforcement agencies’ functioning promotion, and lots of people are daily being arrested due to them being somehow involved in trafficking in drugs or related business, drugs are currently reported to becoming cheaper, purer and more available to willing buyers. The fact that more significant number of people is becoming involved into drug trafficking naturally contributed to the escalation of the number of scandals, being related to police drug corruption. Thus he need emerged to create indicators to measure drug-related police corruption. According to Marché (2009), for such kind of analysis a binary dependent variable should be developed to characterize the variation in the likelihood of corruption of type across the respondents (p.469). When there is still a lack of research, presenting quantitative data on the development of police drug corruption phenomenon is almost impossible. An important dimension of drug-related police corruption scandals lies in the fact that police officers tend not to be personally involved into the operation of trafficking in drugs gangs, but fabricate false evidence, so that their efforts regarding fighting drug-related crime can be viewed with more respect. Such recent trends as high availability of drugs and low possibility of uncovering consensual drug-related deals cannot help contributing to drug police corruption being manifested in considerable number of dimensions and becoming a highly topical issue to be researched into.
Reasons and consequences of police drug corruption
There can be many opinions regarding reasons, which call forth drug police corruption. I cannot help mentioning the fact that these reasons may be associated both with inner organizational and functional pitfalls, which exist in police itself, and external societal trends. Das (2001) considers inner factors to be associated with such issues as organizational structure, leadership, community relations and trainings, being launched in police (p.8). Pitfalls, falling within the scope of the ones, associated with organizational structure, may be also connected with the lack of control and oversight, while leadership-related drawbacks are the ones, which call forth excessive psychological pressure on police officers, when setting too high tasks for them under circumstances of wide-spread consensual drug-related deals, which make completion of these tasks unreal. Leadership drawbacks may also deal with the usage of wrong leadership style (e.g., accelerating pressure by the lack of possibilities for policemen to directly participate in decision-making), as well as the lack of chance to demonstrate imitative and use non-standards means of action. The main drawback, connected with community relations, is the fact that the lack of cooperation with communities promotes more formal attitude to duties performance, thus creating the moral possibility for policemen to abuse their power in order to gain monetary or non-monetary benefits. Lack of professional and psychological trainings can have similar influence. As for external trends, it is necessary to once more emphasize the expansion of drugs market, increasing availability and popularity of drugs and strong ties between drug deals and other negative social issues.
Considering consequences of police drug corruption, I cannot help mentioning their multidimensional nature and influence on many population groups. Universal consequence to be mentioned first is that police drug corruption contributed to ineffectiveness of combating trafficking in drugs and further development of the market of drugs. Concerning police, police drug corruption levels promotes distrust of citizens to it both with regard to combating trafficking in drugs and in global terms. Moreover, police drug corruption contributes to more active police drug use. The implications for population may be connected with greater significance of threat, posed by trafficking in drugs, as well as the danger of becoming accused of trafficking in drugs by falsified evidence. Furthermore, significant public health danger may be associated with the fact that excessive use of force, which is often considered to form the integral part of police drug corruption, often accompanies it (Cooper, Moore, Gruskin and Kriger, 2004, p.1109)
The ways to tackle police drug corruption
Both academia and practitioners are currently being actively involved into combating police drug corruption. Examination of factors, which promote police drug corruption, scope of the problem, concrete cases and their consequences helped practitioners to single out specific measures, which are to be taken in order to effectively prevent and stop police drug corruption. They include passing legislation, which can prevent people from being convicted of drug offences based solely on what is being said by uncovered informants; passing legislation, providing for reliable tests of substances, which are alleged to be illegal drugs; banning racial profiling in terms of law enforcement; introducing the legal requirement of documenting all the traffic stops by race, ethnicity, gender and age; introducing specific measures, aimed at preventing representatives of law enforcement agencies from illegally seizing and keeping property before filling criminal charges or a conviction, as well as increasing funding, allocated for investigations of corruption and civil cases abuses by law enforcement agencies at different levels of functioning. Moreover, specific attention should be paid to greater supervision and communication, increasing authority of supervising bodies and addressing the levels of punishment for police violations and corruption (Marche, 2009, p.479).
Apart from these measures, significant attention is offered to be paid to reforming police organizational structure, which is considered to be characterized by too top-heavy nature, improving leadership, enhancing community policing (specifically emphasizing long-term measures, aimed at combating youth delinquency and disorderly conduct in public places, as well as alcoholism and domestic violence. According to Das (2001), the task of encouraging police officers solve problems requires adding flexibility to both organizational structure and leadership practices and promoting such qualities of police officers as activeness, dynamics and readiness to participate in common initiatives (p.18). Furthermore, it is worth taking measures to improve community participation in policing by introducing more community policing programs. Specific target groups are to be involved to make programs more innovative and flexible.
Prevention of police drug use should be ensured with the help of repeated multifaceted tests (Das, 2001., p.8).
Conclusion
The assignment above was aimed at exploring the nature of police drug corruption, its extent, reasons and consequences, as well as measures, which are to be taken, to prevent and combat this issue. Modern trends, which are being watched at the market of drugs (e.g., increasing availability of drugs, consensual nature of relations between buyers and sellers, close interrelations between drug abuse and other complicated social issues), as well as vulnerability of police officers to drug use and excessive use of force often accompanying police drug corruption call forth the need to actively research into the nature, manifestations of police drug corruption and the ways, which can be employed to prevent and combat it. Variety of forms police drug corruption can be manifested in and its impact on different population groups call forth the need to simultaneously introduce multifaceted measures at different levels.
The measures, being discussed in literature most often relate to taking efforts to influence external environment (e.g, by increasing the number of community policing projects and creating innovative projects, involving target groups) and organization of police (e.g., by creating and introducing more flexible organizational structure and leadership practices). Special attention is paid to the issue of decreasing police drug use by timely identifying individuals, involved in so-called recreational drug use. Majority of legislative measures are aimed at decreasing availability of legal means to victimize innocent citizens with regard to their alleged involvement in drug abuse. To sum up, a complex of comprehensive measures is to be employed in order to effectively prevent and combat police drug corruption, specifically regarding each form this phenomenon manifests in.
References
Cooper, H.,Moore,L., Gruskin, S., Kriger, N. (2004). Characterizing perceived police violence: implications for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 94 (7), pp.1109-1117
Das, D.K. (2001). Street cops as problem-solvers: a tale of three cities. Police Forum, 11 (2), pp. 8-19
Lershe, K., Mieczkowski, T. (2001). Is there a better way to identify rotten applies before they are in the barrel? A comparison of urinalysis and hair analysis for drug-screening police applicants. Police Forum, 11 (2), pp. 1-7
Marche, G.E. (2009). Integrity, culture and scale: an empirical test of the big bad police agency. Crime Law Society Change, 51, pp.463-468
