a) Categories of Police Corruption:
- Opportunistic Theft: This is a category where the cop who arrests a person for stealing some crime, steals the criminals stuff away secretly or including partners with him. Perusing his case further or letting him go after the bribe.
- ‘Shakedowns’ This happens when an officer is offered bribe which is usually an amount of money or something valuable and he/she accepts it in return of letting the criminal go without going through a criminal violation.
- ‘Flaking’ or ‘Padding’: That is adding something to the evidence or planting something which had not happen in real and is unrealistically made a part of it, as an attempt to put a person in trouble or get him/her out of it.
- Protection of Illegal Activity: This is the most hideous act which allows the criminal to continue his unlawful activities that would mean the cop or cops are supporting the crime or indirectly a part of it.
- Direct Criminal Activities: Whenever a police officer himself commits a crime, for e.g. rape cases, robbery, murder, etc. he is considered to be a part of police corruption.
- ‘The Fix’ When the police investigations are going on regarding a case some of the officers part of the investigation team try to hide evidences or undermine the investigation process.
- Use of excessive/unreasonable force: This situation usually occurs when a criminal or suspect is being investigated and the cops, humiliate him, or use unnecessary physical force, causing injuries or harm to the criminal emotionally or physically. (Special Report Police Corruption, 2014)
b) Best Category Why Police officers misbehave:
Opportunistic theft is the category that best describes misconduct of the police. For gaining financial gains from the criminals, could be the main reason of misconduct since the criminal of course wouldn’t want to give away what he has, so the cops usually misbehave in order to force them to give whatever they have. The cops would enforce their authority over the criminal, be it physically or emotionally, the cops could easily blackmail the suspects/criminals and make illegal demands from them. (Csvr.org.za, 2014)
References
Csvr.org.za, (2014). Inside and Outside the Boundaries of Police Corruption. [online] Available at: http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php/publications/1487-inside-and-outside-the-boundaries-of-police-corruption.html [Accessed 24 Nov. 2014].
Special Report Police Corruption. (2014). [online] Available at: http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR%20294.pdf [Accessed 24 Nov. 2014].
