The State Of Florida And Local Corruption Poem by James McLain

Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers break their social contract and abuse their power for personal or department gain. This type of corruption can involve only one officer, or it can involve a group of officers in a coordinated effort. Internal police corruption is a serious adversity against public trust, cohesion of departmental policies, human rights and legal violations involving serious consequences. Senate inquiries do not always resolve corruption, because once an investigation is noted, the behavioral and other aspects of corruption are often buried within the agency. Police corruption can take many forms.

One common form of police corruption is soliciting or accepting bribes in exchange for not reporting organized drug or prostitution rings or other illegal activities and violations of law, county and city ordinances and state and federal laws. Another example is police officers flouting the police code of conduct in order to secure convictions of civilians and suspects—for example, through the use of falsified evidence. There are also situations where law enforcement officers may deliberately and systematically participate in organized crime themselves.

In most major cities there are internal affairs sections to investigate suspected police corruption or misconduct, but there are situations where Internal Affairs also hide department corruption, fraud, abuse and waste. There are also Police Commissions who are complicit in the same cover-ups, often to hide internal and departmental problems, both from public view, and also from inter-departmental reviews and investigations. Similar entities include the British Independent Police Complaints Commission. Police corruption is a significant widespread problem in many departments and agencies worldwide.

It is not possible to measure the level of corruption in the country. Surveys of police officers, citizens and businesses can be used to provide estimates on levels of corruption. These are often inaccurate, as respondents involved in corruption are reluctant to provide any information implicating themselves in criminal activity.[1] Despite this limitation, information collected from International Crime Victim Surveys and surveys conducted by the Global Corruption Enumerated Barometer can be used to estimate the level of police corruption.