Understand and Preventing Police Corruptions

Police Research Series
Paper 110
Understanding and preventing

police corruption:
lessons from the literature
Tim Newburn
Editor: Barry Webb

Home Office
Policing and Reducing Crime Unit
Research, Development and Statistics Directorate
50 Queen Annes Gate
London SW1H 9AT
Crown Copyright 1999

First Published 1999
Policing and Reducing Crime Unit: Police Research Series

The Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (PRC Unit) was formed in 1998 as a result
of the merger of the Police Research Group (PRG) and the Research and Statistics
Directorate. The PRC Unit is now one part of the Research, Development and
Statistics Directorate of the Home Office. The PRC Unit carries out and
commissions research in the social and management sciences on policing and
crime reduction, broadening the role that PRG played.
The PRC Unit has now combined PRGs two main series into the Police
Research Series, containing PRGs earlier work. This series will present research
material on crime prevention and detection as well as police management and
organisation issues.
Research commissioned by PRG will appear as a PRC Unit publication.
Throughout the text there may be references to PRG and these now need to be
understood as relating to the PRC Unit..
ISBN 1-84082-82-2600
Copies of this publication can be made available in formats accessible to

the visually impaired on request.
(ii)
Forewor d
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s discussion of the Police Service and policing in
the United Kingdom was punctuated with examples of malpractice and
misconduct. Twenty years on, several high profile scandals involving officers at all
ranks of the police service in a number of forces, have again placed the police
service, and discussion of police corruption in particular, under the official and
public spotlight.
The Police Service has taken an active and leading role in tackling police
corruption and in putting in place strategies to detect, investigate and eliminate
corruption within its ranks. The Association of Chief Police Officers Taskforce on
Corruption, established in September 1998, has taken the lead at a national level;
individual forces, most notably the Metropolitan Police Service are putting in place
preventive strategies more robust than those previously introduced in the United
Kingdom; and, Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary has completed a
Thematic Inspection on Integrity within the Police Service.
This publication contributes to the debate by providing a review of the published
English language literature on corruption. By its very nature a literature review is
historical. It is hoped that in identifying key lessons drawn from the experiences of
police organisations in various jurisdictions, this report will inform the very
substantial work now underway in the Police Service.
The study should prove a useful addition to our knowledge in this sensitive area.
Dr Gloria Laycock
Head of Policing and Reducing Crime Unit
Home Office
June 1999
(iii)
Acknowledgements
I am hugely grateful to the following for their very generous advice and guidance:
Ben Bowling (Cambridge), Cyrille Fijnaut (Leuven), Janet Foster (Cambridge),
Gareth Newham (Braamfontein), Clive Norris (Hull), Maurice Punch
(Amsterdam), Eli Silverman (New York), Phillip Stenning (Toronto), Richard Ward
and Timothy Stone (Chicago), and especially to David Dixon (New South Wales).
Tracking down what was often almost untraceable literature could not have been
done in the time available without the invaluable support of Karola Winter at
Goldsmiths. In addition, the libraries at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge,
the Home Office, the London School of Economics and the JFK School of
Government, Harvard provided considerable support at short notice.
Thanks are also due to the staff of the Police and Reducing Crime Unit, especially
to Jacquie Russell for all her help and support.
The Author
Tim Newburn is the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Professor of Urban Social Policy
at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
PRCU would like to thank David Dixon, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law of the
University of New South Wales for acting as independent assessor for this report.
(iv)
Executive summar y
A series of public scandals over the past few years, albeit apparently involving a
small number of officers, has caused concern about the standard of ethics and
integrity within the Police Service.
In response, the Association of Chief Police Officers has illustrated its commitment
to take the issues of corruption within the service seriously with the establishment
of a Presidential Taskforce. Individual forces, most notably the Metropolitan Police
Service, are taking steps to tackle corruption within their ranks. Her Majestys
Inspectorate of Constabulary have undertaken a Thematic Inspection on Integrity.
Early in these activities, there was a recognised need to pull together the central
lessons from previous efforts to tackle corruption, both here in the United Kingdom
and also in other jurisdictions. In recognition of this demand, the Home Office
Policing and Reducing Crime Unit commissioned this review.
This work aims to provide a common level of knowledge and understanding of
police integrity and corruption, its causes and the efficacy of strategies for its
prevention. Other issues of relevance include the links between integrity (and
lapses in it) and the development of corruption, and strategies for instilling
organisational values and integrity in staff. It is not an aim of this report to provide
an assessment of the current extent or nature of police corruption in the United
Kingdom. It is hoped this work will provide an essential base for the development
of robust prevention strategies in the longer term.
By definition, a literature review is necessarily historical and shaped by available
material. The review covers the main English language literature on the issues of
police corruption and police ethics over the past 20 years. It includes the
sociological and criminological literature, together with a review of the main
official inquiries from the United States and Australia.
Key findings
The review concludes with eleven key messages central to any understanding of
corruption and which should underpin reforms introduced for its prevention:
police corruption is pervasive, continuing and not bounded by rank;
any definition of corruption should cover both financial and process

corruption, and should acknowledge the varying means, ends and motives of
corrupt activities;
(v)
the boundary between corrupt and non-corrupt activities is difficult to define,

primarily because this is at heart an ethical problem;
police corruption cannot simply be explained as the product of a few bad

apples;
the causes of corruption include: factors that are intrinsic to policing as a job;
the nature of police organisations; the nature of police culture; the
opportunities for corruption presented by the political and task environments;
and, the nature and extent of the effort put in to controlling corruption;
some areas of policing are more prone to corruption than others;
although there are many barriers to successful corruption control, there is

evidence that police agencies can be reformed;
reform needs to go beyond the immediately identified problem;
reform must look at the political and task environments as well as the
organisation itself;
reform tends not to be durable; and
continued vigilance and scepticism is vital.
(vi)
Contents
Page
Forewor d
(iii)
Acknowledgements
(iv)
Executive summar y
(v)
List of figures
(viii)
1.Introduction
Corruption in various jurisdictions
Aim and methodology
The report
1
1
2
3
2. What is police cor ruption?

Corrupt activities
The problem of definition
A question of ethics?
The slippery slope to becoming bent
Summary
4
4
5
8
11
13
3.The causes of police cor ruption

A few bad apples?
The causes of corruption
Drug-related police corruption
14
14
16
25
4. Corruption control
Human resource management
Anti-corruption policies
Internal controls
The external environment and external controls
Possible unintended consequences of corruption control
28
28
31
32
39
42
5. Conclusion: Toward ethical policing
45
References
50
Recent Police Research Group and Policing and Reducing

Crime Unit Publications
56
(vii)
List of figures
Figur e no.
Caption
Page
Types and dimensions of police corruption
Arguments supporting and opposing the acceptance

of gratuities and benefits
10
Resolving the Dirty Harry Problem
11
Causal factors affecting the development of corrupt

practices
17
(viii)
INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction
Corruption in the police service in the United Kingdom has come under increasing
public and official scrutiny in the past 12 months. A series of public scandals, albeit
apparently involving a small number of officers, has caused concern about the
standard of ethics and integrity within the police service. In response, the police
service is putting in place a range of short and longer term reforms to tackle
malpractice and misconduct within its ranks.
Corruption in various jurisdictions
United Kingdom
From the earliest days of the Bow Street Runners; through the formation of the
New Police in the 1820s; to the scandals in the 1960s and 1970s policing in the
United Kingdom has been punctuated with examples of malpractice and
misconduct. The range of corrupt activities uncovered included the concealment of
serious crimes, bribery, the fabrication and planting of evidence. Modern day
scandals of the sort characterised in the nations consciousness by the Birmingham
Six, the Guildford Four, the Carl Bridgewater affair, and the activities of the West
Midlands Serious Crime Squad have involved the suppression of evidence, the
beating of suspects, tampering with confessional evidence and perjury. In response
to these latter activities legislative changes, most notably the Police and Criminal
Evidence Act 1984, were introduced with the aim of regulating police behaviour.
United States
The experience of the police service in the United Kingdom is in no way unique.
The history of policing in other jurisdictions, such as the United States and
Australia, is similarly punctuated with examples of police malpractice and
misconduct. It has been suggested most notably by the Knapp Commission that the
New York Police Department (NYPD) in particular suffered from corruption from
the outset: systematic payoffs from brothels and gambling dens and shakedowns of
small businesses were documented from the end of the nineteenth century through
to the 1950s. During the 1970s widespread graft and bribery covering drugs, vice,
gambling enforcement and criminal investigation more generally were uncovered
(Knapp, 1972), taking a more serious turn in the 1990s with allegations that a
group of officers were involved not only in the usual shakedown and protection
activities, but were themselves involved in trafficking cocaine and other illicit
drugs (Mollen, 1994).
Australia
There is also considerable evidence of longstanding corruption within Australian
policing (Finnane, 1994). Evidence of gambling-related corruption is available from
INTRODUCTION
the earliest days of this century, particularly in New South Wales in the 1930s and
Victoria in the 1950s. A series of official inquiries (the Beach, Kaye, Lucas, Lusher
and Neesham Inquiries) have uncovered organised police corruption in New South
Wales, Queensland and Victoria since the 1970s.Two recent inquiries: the
Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police
Misconduct in Queensland (Fitzgerald, 1989); and, the Royal Commission into the
New South Wales Police Service (Wood, 1997), both found widespread and
organised corruption within the police service. Both investigations also pointed to
wider problems: inadequate education and training of officers, particularly with
regard to ethical training; insufficient or poor management; a police code or
culture which showed contempt for the criminal justice system; disdain for the law
and rejection of its application to police; disregard for the truth; and abuse of
authority (Fitzgerald, 1989: 200).
Aim and methodology
This study aims to identify key issues in police integrity and corruption, with a
specific emphasis on the causes of corruption and the efficacy of different
prevention strategies. Other issues of relevance include the links between integrity
(and lapses in it) and the development of corruption, and strategies for instilling
organisational values and integrity in staff. It is not an aim of this report to
provide an assessment of the current extent or nature of police corruption in the
United Kingdom.
The work was commissioned by the Policing and Reducing Crime Unit to provide
a common level of knowledge and understanding of police corruption, its causes,
and strategies for its prevention, amongst the Police Service and other
organisations. It is hoped this work will provide an essential base for the
development of prevention strategies in the longer term.
This review covers the main English language literature on the issues of police
corruption and police ethics over the past 20 years. It includes the sociological and
criminological literature, together with a review of the main official inquiries from
the United States and Australia. While the majority of material reviewed is drawn
from the experiences of police forces in the US and Australia, this is not
exclusively the case. Where material is available in other jurisdictions, this has also
been included.
INTRODUCTION
The repor t
The report is presented in three substantive chapters:
Chapter two considers how police corruption is to be identified and defined. It

examines the nature of the activities that are generally considered to be corrupt
and then moves to look at competing definitions in the literature.
Chapter three then moves on to examine the causes and sources of police
corruption. The chapter ends by looking briefly at the policing of drugs, thought
by many to be the source of considerable new dangers of corruption within the
police service.
Having discussed what are generally agreed to be the key factors in the
development of corruption, the following chapter then looks at the reverse:
strategies that have been used in the attempt to control, reduce or prevent
corruption.
Key findings of this review are presented in Chapter Five. Principal amongst these
is that although it is unrealistic to think that corruption can be eliminated, there is
good evidence to suggest that it can be controlled and that full-scale organisational
corruption can be prevented.
WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?
2. What is police cor ruption?

Most police departments have members who commit corrupt acts from time to
time. Only some police departments, however, become corrupt police
departments. (Sherman, 1978:32)
The term police corruption has been used to describe many activities: bribery;
violence and brutality; fabrication and destruction of evidence; racism; and,
favouritism or nepotism. Authors differ in the breadth of the definition they are
prepared to accept. Before moving to the question of whether a precise definition is
possible, it is worth examining in a little detail the range of activities that might be
included within a broad discussion of corruption.
Corrupt activities
The best known typology of corruption is that provided by Roebuck and Barker
(1974 ; but also see Carter, 1990; Sayed and Bruce, 1998). They identify eight
Figure 1: Types and dimensions of police cor ruption
Type
Dimensions
Corruption of authority
When an officer receives some form of material gain by virtue

of their position as a police officer without violating the law
per se (e.g. free drinks, meals, services).
Kickbacks
Receipt of goods, services or money for referring business to

particular individuals or companies.
Opportunistic theft
Stealing from arrestees (sometimes referred to as rolling),

from traffic accident victims, crime victims and the bodies or
property of dead citizens.
Shakedowns
Acceptance of a bribe for not following through a criminal

violation i.e. not making an arrest, filing a complaint or
impounding property.
Protection of illegal
activities
Police protection of those engaged in illegal activities

(prostitution, drugs, pornography) enabling the business to
continue operating.
The fix
Undermining of criminal investigations or proceedings, or the

loss of traffic tickets.
A police officer commits a crime against person or property
for personal gain in clear violation of both departmental and
criminal norms.
Direct criminal activities
Internal payoffs
Prerogatives available to police officers (holidays, shift

allocations, promotion) are bought, bartered and sold.
Flaking or padding
Planting of or adding to evidence (argued by Punch to be

particularly evident in drugs cases).
types of police corruption, to which Punch (1985) suggests adding a ninth, each of
which can be analysed along one or more of five dimensions: the acts and actors
involved; the norms violated; the degree of support from the peer group; the
degree of organisation of deviant practices; and, the reaction of the police
department. Figure 1 summarises these types, ranging in a hierarchy from rule
breaking to lawless behaviour.
Two issues are raised by this list of corrupt activities. First, whether it is in fact
helpful and/or realistic to consider all of them to be corrupt. If so, what is it that
links them all together? If not, on what basis might some of the activities be
excluded from the list? The second issue relates to the fact that Roebuck and
Barkers (1974) typology was ordered in a hierarchy from the least to the most
serious. Implicit in this model, and in much writing about police corruption, is the
idea that officers who become corrupt tend to start at the bottom with the least
serious offences and then progress some or all the way along the road to the other
end of the spectrum. We will return to this problem referred to by Kleinig (1996)
as the slippery slope argument later in this chapter. First, we consider what
corrupt activities have in common and what separates them from other forms of
deviance by police officers.
The problem of definition
As was suggested at the outset, there are many competing definitions of corruption.
There are broad, inclusive definitions which suggest that police corruption is
loosely identified as deviant, dishonest, improper, unethical or criminal behaviour
by a police officer (Roebuck and Barker, 1974). There are also significantly
narrower definitions. James Q Wilson (1963), for example, distinguishes between
activities such as accepting bribes (which he along with everyone else considers to
be the prototypical form of corrupt behaviour) and criminal activities such as
burglary on duty (which he considers to be qualitatively different criminal but
not corrupt). Although both acts are criminal, the point of Wilsons distinction is
that bribery of police officers involves the exploitation of authority in a way that
burglary by police officers need not. There is a parallel here with work on so-called
white collar crime (see Klockars, 1977).
Both white collar crime and what Stoddard (1968) referred to as blue coat crime
(police corruption) are those which are committed in the course of occupations.
Thus, as Klockars (1977:334) puts it, if police officers steal from the scene of a
crime they are called to investigate, they are corrupt. If they steal from their
families, from their friends, or from stores and homes without the cover of their
police role, they are merely thieves. Police corruption, it is generally accepted,
necessarily involves an abuse of position what is corrupted is the special trust

invested in the occupation. Here then we have one element for inclusion in a
definition: the exploitation or misuse of authority. The special trust enjoyed by
police officers may, according to Klockars, be corrupted in two ways. First, it may be
corrupted when police commit criminal acts under the cover of such trust.
Secondly, it may be corrupted when that trust is employed for illegal reasons such
as providing services for money. The latter type of corruption perverts the fair
distribution of the endsof policing; the former corrupts both the ends of policing
and the means we entrust the police to achieve them (Klockars, 1977:334). Our
second observation, therefore, must be that any useful definition of corruption must
pay attention to both the ends and means of the activity.
Shermans solution to this

difficulty is to argue that corrupt
acts involve the illegal use of
organisational power, but that
illegal refers to violations of
administrative codes and civil
law as well as the criminal law
.
However, useful as this is, most discussion of corruption goes further and includes
reference to activities that are not necessarily criminal (the acceptance of gratuities
or minor kickbacks 1); activities that do not involve the provision of services
(indeed, activities that may involve the failure to police); and, activities that do
not involve the exchange of money (or, indeed, other material goods). Thus,
McMullans (1961: 183-4) definition of corruption is sufficiently broad to include a
range of such activities:
a public official is corrupt if he accepts money or moneys worth for doing
something he is under a duty to do anyway, that he is under a duty not to do, or
to exercise a legitimate discretion for improper reasons.
Punch (1985) broadens this definition in two ways. He defines corruption as
occurring:
when an official receives or is promised significant advantage or reward
(personal, group or organisational) for doing something that he is under a duty
to do anyway, that he is under a duty not to do, for exercising a legitimate
discretion for improper reasons, and for employing illegal means to achieve
approved goals.
This definition recognises that the particular ends of corrupt activity may not
involve personal reward but, rather, may be undertaken for the benefit of a wider
group (a specialist squad for example) or the police organisation as a whole. Such a
definition differs, therefore, from Goldsteins (1977) view that corruption is
designed to produce personalgain for the officer or others (emphasis added).
Secondly, Punch broadens the definition to include not only illegitimate but also
approved goals what is sometimes, but often rather misleadingly, referred to in
the UK as noble cause corruption.
Whether it is helpful to consider all forms of activity which involve the use of
illegitimate means to secure legitimate ends as corrupt is questionable however.
There are various forms of policing practice ranging from the use of excessive
force through to procedural breaches resulting in conviction which whilst clearly
illegitimate, are not necessarily helpfully categorised as corrupt. In a similar
fashion, many definitions of corruption exclude such activities as sleeping,
drinking, taking drugs or having sex whilst working, feigning illness, reckless
driving and other forms of minor police deviance. They do so because such
misconduct doesnt involve material reward or gain (Barker and Wells quoted in
Palmer, 1992). In such cases the corrupt motivation is argued not to be present.
Perhaps the most inclusive definition of corruption is provided by Kleinig
(1996:166). He suggests that:
Police officers act corruptly when, in exercising or failing to exercise their
authority, they act with the primary intention of furthering private or
departmental/divisional advantage.
Kleinig argues that the advantage of this definition is that it enables many acts and
practices that may never show themselves as corrupt for example, doing what one
is duty-bound to do solely for personal advancement to be included within a
definition of corruption. This would clearly cover activities that would come under
the general rubric of process corruption (Wood, 1997a), as well as activities such
as over-zealous policing with the aim of personal advancement. Though such
activities may not be what we normally think of as corrupt, he argues that they
should be considered to be so because they are motivated by the spiritof
corruption. As Kleinig argues, it is motivation that is the key to understanding
corruption. Corruption, at heart, is an ethical problem before it is a legal or
administrative problem.
Where does all this leave us? First and foremost it should make us wary of seeking
an all-inclusive definition of corruption. It may be that defining the essential
characteristics of corruption is largely impossible. Nonetheless, the discussion does
allow us to make some general observations about police corruption:
in attempting to define corruption, attention must be paid to the means, the

ends and the motivation behind the conduct;
corruption need not necessarily involve illegal conduct or misconduct on the

part of a police officer (the goals of the action may be approved);
corrupt acts may involve the use or the abuse of organisational authority;
corruption may be internal as well as external, i.e. it may simply involve two
(or more) police officers; and
the motivation behind an act is corrupt when the primary intention is to further
private or organisational advantage.
Two methods of considering corruption have been considered here: to categorise

corrupt acts and to search for a definition that will help distinguish corrupt from
non-corrupt acts. Neither leads to an entirely satisfactory conclusion. If we accept
Kleinigs argument that corruption is fundamentally an ethical problem, then it is
perhaps not surprising that the search for complete clarity should end in frustration.
The boundaries are inevitably going to be indistinct and unclear. The next step is
to look at some of these boundaries and therefore some of the key ethical
questions in greater detail.
A question of ethics?
As with all organisations there are practices within the police service which whilst
they may be considered to be deviant are nonetheless tolerated; they are not
perceived as corrupt. In some cases however they may differ only in degree from
activities that would almost uniformly be considered corrupt. At what point do
particular practices constitute corruption?
2
The use of the masculine

pronoun here is not intended to
convey the impression that police
managers are necessarily male.
As Goldstein (1975:28) notes, as soon as a police manager declares himself 2 to be

against corruption he is immediately confronted with a number of difficult
questions about his stance: Does he mean an officer should not accept a free cup of
coffee? How about a meal? What about a Christmas gift? What about a reward
sincerely offered for meritorious service? And what about a tip offered by a visiting
dignitary to the officer who served as his bodyguard? He goes on to say that these
are all issues that are on the periphery of the corruption problem. They are rarely
what prompted the police manager to speak out about corruption, and are unlikely
to be of particular concern to those troubled by the perceived existence of
corruption. Nonetheless, they raise some fundamental questions about the police.
Should police officers be subject to different (higher) standards from other public
officials? Is it useful to have a complete ban on gratuities? Should police agencies
invest greater trust in their staff?
The answer to the question about gratuities and trust has always been variable.
Minor gratuities have often been accepted as part and parcel of ordinary police
work. However, the leaders of what Sherman (1978) refers to as reform police
departments departments attempting to fight corruption within their ranks
have often taken a rather harder-line stance. O.W. Wilson one of the best known
American police reformers was firmly against even the acceptance of a free cup of
coffee, and Patrick V Murphy the Commissioner of New York in the aftermath of
the Knapp Commission famously stated: except for your paycheck, there is no such
thing as a clean buck (quoted in Goldstein, 1975:29). The question remains,
therefore, where and how is the line to be drawn in practice?
Goldstein (1975) raises this issue of drawing the line in a chapter entitled
administrative dilemmas. Whilst it is clearly an administrative dilemma it is also
fundamentally an ethicaldilemma. The practical answer to the question in any
given situation requires a clear statement of ethical principles. As with many such
questions, however, it is quite possible to defend different answers.
By far the most comprehensive treatment of this question is provided by Kleinig
(1996)3. Kleinig begins by pointing out one significant difference between bribes
and gratuities: bribes are generally of a significant size and often in proportion (at
least) to the favour being requested, whereas gratuities tend to be more symbolic.
Moreover, he argues that whereas bribes are offered and accepted in order to
corrupt authority, there is nothing in principle that implies that the offer of a
gratuity is done with the intention of influencing the exercise of authority or that,
alternatively, even in cases where the actions of an officer are aimed at securing a
gratutity, that the gratuity wouldnt have been offered anyway. Nonetheless, the
question of whether it is appropriate for police officers to accept gratuities remains
a difficult one for police managers. Kleinigs arguments in favour of, or in
opposition to, acceptance of gratuities and similar benefits are outlined in Figure 2
(page 10).
Perhaps the strongest argument against the acceptance of gratuities results from the
idea that the provision of policing4 is deemed to be a public good (Jones and
Newburn, 1998). Being a public good it is presumed that individuals and groups
cannot or should not be prevented from using them and, moreover, that policing is
indivisible: it cannot meaningfully be divided amongst individuals and groups
(Johnston, 1992). The acceptance of gratuities, at least on a regular or systematic
basis may, therefore, detract from the democratic ethos of policing (Kleinig,
1996:178). As Feldberg (1985:274) put it: gratuities are simply an inducement to a
police officer to distribute the benefit of his presence disproportionately to some
taxpayers and not others. Gratuities are an inducement to treat policing services as
a club good.
The rest of this section is heavily

dependent on the discussion of
these issues in Kleinig (1996)
chapter 9, pp.171-181
The reference to policing her

e
is to public policing rather than
the provision of security or
policing services by the private,
commercial sector
.
Figure 2: Arguments supporting and opposing the acceptance of gratuities and benefits
A.
Arguments in support of acceptance
Appreciation
Natural and reasonable to show appreciation to those

providing a public service. Rude to refuse.
Not significant
Gratuities are not significant enough to buy or cultivate

favour.
Officially offered
When offered officially by a company or corporation (e.g. the

discounted Big-Mac) no personal sense of obligation can
develop.
Links with the

community
Part and parcel of fostering close links with the community,

including business people. In turn, a fundamental of good
policing.
Police culture
An entrenched part of police culture. Any attempt to end it

will result in displeasure and cynicism.
Trust and discretion
B.
Attempts to prohibit acceptance imply that officers cannot be

trusted to exercise discretion and are incapable of making
sensible moral judgements to guide their behaviour.
Arguments in opposition to acceptance
Sense of obligation
Even the smallest gift inevitably creates a sense of obligation

if it becomes regularised.
Slippery slope
Gratuities lead to a slippery slope where the temptations

become imperceptibly greater and refusal increasingly
difficult.
Not all officers can exercise proper judgement on what is
reasonable to accept. More sensible for the organisation to
remove temptation altogether.
Remove temptation
Purchase preferential
treatment
Businesses which offer gratuities are, in essence, seeking to

purchase preferential treatment (e.g. encourage greater police
presence in the vicinity of their business).
I have suggested that attempting to define corruption requires, at least, an

examination of both the means and ends involved in such activities. A second
way of exploring the boundaries of corruption is provided by Klockars (1985)
consideration of the relationship between dirty means and legimate ends in
policing: what he terms the Dirty Harry Problem.
The Dirty Harry Problem
The heart of this problem is the question of whether and if so, under what
circumstances, a morally good end justifies the use of ethically, politically or
legally dangerous means to its achievement (Klockars, 1985:56). The answer is
that dirty means must always be regarded and punished as dirty even though
10
their use may be what is required of the just police officer under some extreme
circumstances. Klockars argues it is not possible for the officer to be both innocent
and just. In deciding whether to punish an officer who has achieved ends we
applaud but who, believing there to be no alternative, uses illicit means to achieve
them, we face an ethical dilemma.
Dirty Harry problems are a staple part of police life, Klockars argues. One of the
dangers of the moral cynicism which many police officers may develop as a result
of the realities of police work is that they may come to regard dirty means as ends
in themselves: meting out punishment to those who are guilty but who, because of
the inefficiencies of the criminal justice system, or other difficulties, are likely to
escape retribution. Klockars then goes on to examine three attempts at a resolution
of the Dirty Harry Problem (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Resolving the Dirty Har ry Problem
Resolution
Description
Snappy bureaucrats
A professional policing model associated with reformists like

August Vollmer, in which officers are highly trained and obey
clearly laid out bureaucratic rules and regulations. In Klockars
view, dirty means do not disappear from such a model,
merely that the motivations for their use focus more on career
and organisational goals rather than punishment.
Bittners peace
A view of policing which substitutes keeping the peace for

the presently prevailing police ends of punishment (Klockars,
1985:67). Though agreeing with Bittners view of policing,
Klockars argues that it is unrealistic to expect that other ends
of policing will disappear. For as long as other ends such as
punishing the guilty are present, dirty means will be found.
Skolnicks craftsmen
Police officers see themselves as craftsmen who care about

their work and find it just. Skolnicks craftsman resolves the
Dirty Harry Problem by entering another moral realm in
which the means he uses are justified by the ends.
The difference between Skolnicks and Klockars views of the Dirty Harry Problem
lies in their attitude to creating a more morally sensitive or ethical police officer.
Skolnick is a pessimist in this regard, whereas Klockars sees a solution, albeit an
uncomfortable one.
The slippery slope to becoming bent
A number of tricky ethical dilemmas have been raised so far in this chapter. Before
concluding, one further issue linking the subjects of gratuities and dirty means
11
must be considered. That is, the relationship between minor and major
transgressions of the rules of ethical conduct particularly whether there is a
slippery slope which necessarily leads from the former to the latter. According to
Kleinig (1996:174) it is still very common to find woven into theories about the
sources of police corruption the suggestion that actual corruption starts off in a
small way and then becomes increasingly addictive. There are two versions of the
slippery slope argument, he suggests: the logical and the psychological.
This is similar to the grasseating/`meat eating distinction

made by the Knapp
Commission. The meat eaters
are those patrolmen who...
aggressively misuse their police
powers for personal gain. The
grass eaters simply accept the
payoffs that the happenstances
of police work throw their way.
The Commission went on to
argue that the grass eaters wer
ee
the heart of the problem because
their great numbers tend to
make corruption respectable.
The logical version: posits that because even the acceptance of a minor
gratuity involves the same implicit rationale as, say the acceptance of cash
compromising professional impartiality for personal gain the person who does
the former undermines the grounds they may have had for refusing the latter.
The logic is that because both are wrong, or both are wrong for the same reasons,
having engaged in minor acts of illegitimate conduct opens up the way for more
significant transgressions. A second version of the argument has it that although
the gap between minor and major transgressions may be significant, there are
many other transgressions in this gap which make the setting of some logical
boundary impossible. Whichever version of the argument one employs, the
logical conclusion is that the acceptance of minor gratuities like a free cup of
tea ought to be avoided.
The psychological version : the best known example is that contained in

Shermans (1985) paper Becoming Bent. Shermans focus is on the police
officers moral career the process of self-labelling that takes place as an officer
moves from minor perks to more serious forms of corruption. He argues that
there is a continuum from one to the other which involves a series of stages each
of which require a moral decision to be made. Each stage involves a gradual
redefining of the self as who will accept (ever more serious) forms of bribery.
The individual steps are small, often beginning with the acceptance of police
perks free coffee and meals from restaurants, but the overall journey is long
and may be terminated along the way (often with the justification that certain
forms of graft are dirty whereas, by implication the ones that had been
accepted were clean) 5.
The key policy implication of Shermans argument is ensuring that there is some
point a boundary where the redefintion of self that is required is so great that
most will be discouraged from making the leap. As Kleinig (1996) points out what
is interesting about this version of the slippery slope argument, is that it does not
necessarily hold the acceptance of minor gratuities to be unacceptable (though
Sherman is clearly uncomfortable with such gratuities). What is problematic about
12
their acceptance is that doing so requires a redefinition of self that makes the
acceptance of more significant gifts easier.
Summar y
There is no straightforward solution to either the question of definition or to the
ethical problems outlined. The discussion illustrates the simple but uncomfortable
fact that complex ethical problems are an inherent part of policing. Recognising
the problems and the complexities involved is an important stage in constructing a
coherent administrative policy response to them. The next stage is understanding
the sources and causes of corruption in the police service. We turn to this issue in
Chapter Three.
13
THE CAUSES OF POLICE CORRUPTION
3. The causes of police corruption

In previous chapters I have looked briefly at corruption and the history of policing,
and have considered definitions of corruption and typologies of corrupt practices.
Even this basic review allows us to say some fairly definitve things about police
corruption:
Roebuck and Barker (1974)

list a range of competing
explanations including:
dishonest and criminal recruits
(Lewis and Blum, 1964);
faulty training and supervision
(Tappan, 1960); political
corruption (Garrdiner, 1970);
dearth of professional standards
(Skolnick, 1967); societal
demands for illegal services
(Merton, 1958); and,
socialisation of newer recruits
into corrupt practices
(Stoddard, 1968).
it is pervasive corrupt practices are found in some form in a great many police
agencies in all societies;
it is a continuing problem there is evidence of corrupt practices from all stages

of police history;
it is not simply a problem of the lower ranks corruption has been found at all
levels of the police organisation;
there are certain forms of policing, or areas of the police organisation, which are
more at risk of corruption; and
it is not simply financial: activities (including process activities) extending

beyond bribery and extortion have been examined.
This helps us begin the process of explaining the causes of corruption: that is to
focus on the nature and context of police work. Predictably there are many
competing explanations for police corruption in the criminological literature6. One
of the traditional occupational explanations of corruption has been that it is the
product of bad apples and atypical of the organisation. In this chapter, we begin by
examining briefly the reasons why the bad apples theory of police corruption has
been largely discredited in recent years, before moving on to examine what it is
about the nature and context of police work that facilitates or causes corruption.
A few bad apples?
When confronted with allegations of corruption for which there is supporting
evidence, police agencies will generally claim that the problem identified is limited
to a small number of corrupt officers who are quite unrepresentative of the wider
standards exhibited by the organisation. The history of policing, however, is full of
examples where this explanation could simply not be sustained in the face of
overwhelming evidence of organised corruption. Thus, perhaps best known of all,
after the revelations of Officer Frank Serpico in New York City, the Knapp
Commission hearings destroyed the police unions argument that police corruption
was confined to a few rotten apples in an otherwise healthy barrel (Sherman,
1978: xxviii). In Knapps view:
14
According to this theory, which bordered on official Department doctrine, any

policeman found to be corrupt must promptly be denounced as a rotten apple in
an otherwise clean barrel. It must never be admitted that his individual
corruption may be symptomatic of underlying disease A high command
unwilling to acknowledge that the problem of corruption is extensive cannot
very well argue that drastic changes are necessary to deal with the problem.
(Knapp, 1972:6-7)
The Knapp Commission concluded that corrupt pads existed in every plain
clothes gambling-enforcement squad in New York, and that corruption could be
found, indeed was often extensively found, in drugs enforcement, criminal
investigation and in uniformed patrol. A system of internal corruption, where
managerial discretion and favour were bought and sold in a marketplace of payoffs,
was also uncovered. Corrupt practices were highly, and often sophisticatedly
organised, and were protected and reinforced by tolerance of, or selective blindness
towards, it by non-participating officers (Henry, 1994).
The reform commissioner, Patrick V Murphy, supported and reinforced the Knapp
Commissions view that the idea that the barrel was clean could not be supported:
The rotten apple theory wont work any longer. Corrupt police officers are not
natural-born criminals, nor morally wicked men, constitutionally different from
their honest colleagues. The task of corruption control is to examine the barrel,
not just the apples the organisation, not just the individuals in it because
corrupt police are made, not born. (quoted in Barker and Carter, 1986: 10)
Further evidence, and in some respects even more worrying evidence, of the
pervasiveness and embeddedness of police corruption comes from two further, more
recent, official inquiries. What both the Royal Commission into New South Wales
Police (Wood) and the Mollen Commission investigating allegations of corruption
in New York found was not only traditional forms of organised corruption
associated with regulatory forms of policing, but more insidious forms of what
Knapp referred to as meat eating. Thus Wood (1997a:153) talked of the active
involvement of police in planning and implementing criminal activity, sometimes
in partnership with known criminals and on other occasions in competition with
them. Both Commissions were clear that the corruption they detected was
organisational in character. The conclusion drawn by the Wood Commission was
that its own findings must dispel, for all time, any explanation based upon
individual deviance or opportunistic corruption. The problem to be addressed is
much more fundamental (Wood, 1997a:22).
15
The causes of cor ruption

Before it is possible to consider ways in which institutionalised police corruption
might be prevented it is important to understand what gives rise to corruption,
what makes it possible? Once again, the literature is reasonably consistent in
identifying key issues in the development of corrupt practices within police
organisations. What tends to vary is the way in which these issues are
compartmentalised. Shermans (1974) outline of what he refers to as the constant
and variable factors in police corruption is used as a means of organising the
discussion (see Figure 4). Constant factors are those which facilitate corruption, the
extent of which is subsequently influenced by a number of variable factors.
In the rest of this chapter each of these factors is discussed briefly, before moving
on to a discussion of drug-related corruption.
Constant factors
Discretion
Police officers have considerable freedom to exercise in making decisions
about whether to enforce particular laws in particular situations, giving rise to
the opportunity for such decisions to be influenced by considerations of
material or other gain rather than by professional judgement. One of the key
sources of deviant goals are resources available within the police organisation.
It is not just the variability in the use of discretion that is crucial here. It is
also the focus of police work. There are some forms of police work that bring
with them greater opportunities for, and therefore greater likelihood of,
corruption. It is in the nature of the violations being policed that one of the
key resources for corruption is found, and which makes particular
departments, divisions or units worth capturing. We return to this below in
relation to legal opportunities for corruption.
The second aspect of discretion concerns the possible existence of both internal
and external conflict about the goals of policing. As Goldstein (1975:26) says,
Police officers are expected to operate in a manner that is in sharp contrast to
the formal provisions governing their duties. Thus, whereas there is a legalistic
presupposition that the purpose of police organisations is to enforce all laws, not
only is this impractical, but clients of police organisations will tend to the view
that it is appropriate for there to be priorities in enforcement practices. However,
they will not always agree about what these priorities are. The question of who
determines priorities becomes extremely important. Sherman (1978) suggests that
in most organisations, goals and priorities are set by a continually evolving group
16
Figure 4: Causal factors affecting the development of corrupt practices

A.
Constant factors
Discretion
The exercise of discretion is argued to have both legitimate

and illegitimate bases.
Low managerial visibility
A police officers actions are often low in visibility as far as

line management is concerned.
Low public visibility
Much of what police officers do is not witnessed by members

of the public.
Peer group secrecy
Police culture is characterised by a high degree of internal

solidarity and secrecy.
Managerial secrecy
Police managers have generally worked themselves up

from the beat and share many of the values held by those they
manage.
Status problems
Police officers are sometimes said to be poorly paid relative to

their powers.
Association with
lawbreakers/contact
with temptation
Police officers inevitably come into contact with a wide

variety of people who have an interest in police not doing
what they have a duty to do. Such people may have access to
considerable resources.
B. Variable factors
Community structure
Refers to the degree of anomie, the political ethos, and the

extent of culture conflict.
Organisational
characteristics
Levels of bureaucracy, integrity of leadership, solidarity of

work subcultures, moral career stages of police officers, and
the perception of legitimate opportunities.
Legal opportunities
for corruption
Moral: so-called victimless crimes (Schur, 1965) associated

with the policing of vice.
Regulative: the exploitation of minor or trivial regulations
such as those associated with construction, traffic and
licensing.
Corruption controls
How the guardians are themselves guarded.
Social organisation
of corruption
Moral cynicism
Two basic forms: arrangements and events.

Association with lawbreakers and contact with temptation
is inevitable in police work, inclining officers towards
moral cynicism.
of people best conceived of as a dominant coalition (which may consist of

people outside the organisation as well as those inside). It is the reaction of the
dominant coalition to deviant practices which marks the boundary between
individual and organisational deviance. There are occasions, he argues, when
17
dominant coalitions adopt deviant goals and it is at this point that police
agencies become corrupt.
Low managerial visibility
Linked closely to the discretion inherent in much police work is the fact that it is
often difficult for others to see it. As Goldstein (1990:6) observes under the best
of circumstances, police agencies have several peculiar characteristics that make
them especially difficult to administer. Police officers are spread out in the field,
not subject to direct supervision. This enables them to resist managerial edicts,
policies and even disciplinary actions (Manning, 1979:63). Importantly, there is
also, it is suggested, a degree of complicity in rule-bending or rule-breaking which
is engendered by the existence of discretion and low visibility in the job. In the
more extreme forms of process corruption such as the excessive use of force, the
relative invisibility of the work may actually be exploited. It is in relation to those
parts of the police service that are most secretive or least transparent that
accusations of malpractice (process or financial corruption) are most common
(Evans and Morgan, 1998). The authors argue that it is possible to introduce
compensating factors. Thus, most of the provisions recommended by the
Committee for the Prevention of Torture in line with the European Convention
concern the need for greater transparency.
To the idea of low managerial visibility we might add the issue of managerial
support for malpractice. The relative absence of agreed upon standards in
policing is not simply a source of flexibility for patrol officers. It is also a source of
practical and ethical dilemmas one of the things that may in the officers eyes
make it difficult to do the job. According to Wilson (1968) relationships between
patrolmen and administrators tend to be defined by the extent to which the
former feels backed up by the latter. Good governors identify with, and protect,
the ranks. Indeed, they may need to become implicated in their activities
(McConville and Shepherd, 1992; and below). Even when managerial influence is
being brought to bear it may encourage malpractice. Thus, Punch (1994:27)
points out that some senior officers may constantly reiterate the need to stick to
the formal rules but then, in their behaviour, display an emphasis on success even
where the rules may have been bent.
Low public visibility
Linked again to the inherent discretion available to police officers, and also to the
limited degree of managerial oversight that is possible in much policing, there is a
third factor low public visibility. Much of what police officers do is only visible to
18
the person or people with whom they are immediately engaged. Perhaps more
importantly, the police have considerable access to private spaces where they
cannot be observed at all: premises and domestic dwellings that have been burgled;
buildings where there is reason to believe a crime may be committed.
Peer group secrecy
Sherman (1978) argues that corrupt police departments are socially organised in
relation to a number of informal rules. The rules have two main purposes. First, to
minimise the chances of external control being mobilised and, secondly, to keep
corrupt activities at a reasonable level. The rule most often referred to in this
connection, is the rule of silence. Officers are socialised into not cooperating with
investigations of their colleagues. Whether or not he participates financially in
corruption activities, an officers adherence to the blue curtain of secrecy rule puts
him squarely within the corruption system, the members of an organisation who
comply with the deviant goal. (Sherman, 1978:47)
Discussing police occupational culture in Britain, McConville and Shepherd
(1992:207) say the most important thing that probationary officers learn in their
first few months in the police is the need to keep their mouths shut about
practices, including those in breach of the rules, which experienced officers deem
necessary in discharging policing responsibilities. Secrecy becomes a protective
armour shielding the force as a whole from public knowledge of infractions
(Reiner, 1992:93).
It is not just secrecy, but the strong bonds of loyalty within police culture that is
identified in several official inquiries as both facilitating and encouraging
corruption and hampering inquiries and control efforts. The Wood Commission
found that:
The strength of the code of silence was evident during the Commission
hearings. Almost without exception officers approached by the Commission
initially denied ever witnessing or engaging in any form of corrupt activity. Even
with an undertaking that police would not be disciplined for failing to report
certain forms of corruption, the offer of amnesty and the availability of
protection against self-incrimination, officer after officer maintained this stand
until presented with irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Each knew the truth,
yet the strength of the code, and the blind hope that no one would break it,
prevailed. (Wood, 1997a:155)
19
According to the Wood Commission, the code of silence most probably

contributed to the emergence of corruption in four ways:
for honest and inexperienced officers it influenced them to accept corruption as

part of the job;
for managers it engendered a sense of futility that corruption could be

challenged or the police service reformed;
for corrupt officers it was a means by which they could manipulate and control
fellow officers; and
for internal investigators it discouraged vigorous inquiry.
Managerial secrecy
It is important not to overstate

the extent of this internal
solidarity. We will return to the
issue of solidarity and the extent
to which so-called police
culture is monolithic in the next
chapter.
The code of silence is not simply something which applies to the rank and file.
The Wood Commission in NSW identified an us and them attitude which, they
suggested, encourages police to adopt an adversarial position to anyone who is not
a police officer or who challenges police activity (Wood, 1997a:155; see also
Shearing, 1981; Mollen, 1994) 7. Similarly, the Mollen Commission (1994) made
reference to a police culture that exalts loyalty and suggested that corruption was
allowed to flourish once again in New York not only because of the silence of
honest officers too afraid to talk but also because of willfully blind supervisors who
fear the consequences of a corruption scandal more than corruption itself (1994:1).
Status problems
It is often suggested that bribery and general financial corruption is a far from
unexpected outcome in circumstances where public officials are inadequately paid.
Van Reenen (1997) cites low pay as a cause of a lack of integrity for people in all
positions, particularly in societies where consumption is highly valued but salaries
are low. However, even in societies where police officers are reasonably well paid,
and where corrupt activities are deemed unacceptable, the fact that there is a
perceived mismatch between income and responsibilities may lead to the
development of corruption. Similarly, perceived inequities of income within police
forces may also make the temptations toward corruption more attractive. In the
UK, the most recent expression of concern about the consequences of police
poverty came from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. In an interview,
Sir Paul Condon said If youre not paying your police officers a wage they can live
on, you are almost inviting them to indulge in malpractice its getting tougher
20
and tougher for young police officers to make ends meet. That doesnt mean they
all go off and do bad things, but if youre serious about integrity you must make sure
there is a reasonable level of pay and conditions that doesnt tempt them into
malpractice.8
Association with lawbreakers/ Contact with temptation
One of the ever-presents of police work is organised criminal interests who engage
in crime as a business enterprise (Goldstein, 1975). They cannot carry out their
business at least not with the freedom they would like without ensuring a
minimum of interference from the police. If one adds in to the mix the discretion
available to the officer, and the limited visibility of police actions, not to mention a
code of secrecy, the opportunity to succumb to the temptations with which an
officer will inevitably come into contact are great. Those who are most interested
in corrupting police officers may well have little to lose and a lot to gain from
bribery and other forms of illegality, and they may also have access to substantial
sums of money or other benefits (Kleinig, 1996). Punch (1994) refers to the
dangers inherent in encouraging police officers to develop close ties with criminals
as going native (see Daley, 1994).
Variable factors
Community structure
The context in which police agencies work is always likely to have a very
significant impact on the nature and style of that work, including the extent to
which officers engage in corrupt practices. The literature from North America and
Australia points to both the direct and indirect influence of the political
environment and political culture in influencing levels of corruption (see
Goldstein, 1975; Knapp, 1972; Mollen, 1994; Fitzgerald, 1989; Wood, 1997).
Indeed, Sherman (1978:32) suggests that capture by the political environment is
probably the leading explanation of why police departments become corrupt.
There is much less evidence of politically-influenced or oriented corruption in the
UK, no doubt largely as a result of the general lack of local political control of
policing, certainly during most of the twentieth century.
Sherman (1978:32) also argues that community tolerance, or even support, for
police corruption can facilitate a departments becoming corrupt, ie they may
legitimate corruption. Community tolerance of such activities (particularly what he
refers to as little scandals) may, he argues, encourage police departments to view
their corrupt practices as legitimate. On a more mundane level it is clear, for
example, that businesses often have a vested interest in maximising police presence
21
Sir Paul Condon inNew

Statesman and Society, 30
October 1998
The company doesnt appear to

adopt a similar policy in either
the US or the UK. HMICs
Inspection Repor
t Police
Integrity discusses the practice
of discounting in UK policing.
(at least at certain times of day) and in reinforcing positive relations with the local
police. For example, Macdonalds in Australia9 offer half priced food to emergency
services staff, including police officers (see Finnane, 1990; Kleinig, 1996).
Organisational characteristics
In its final report the Wood Commission concluded that a service that is seen to
do what it can to maintain high morale, to encourage personal and career
development, to avoid boredom, frustration, stress and cynicism, to develop
meaningful understanding and practical guidance in relation to ethical and
integrity issues, and to emphasise its role of service, is far less likely to have a
serious corruption problem than a service which ignores these factors (1997a:32).
A strong link was drawn between the absence of professional pride and the
development of corruption and malpractice within the organisation. Maintaining
morale, professional standards and respect for authority within the organisation are
in this view considered essentially to be protective factors guarding against the
drift into corruption.
Legal opportunities for corruption
Sherman (1978) in his study of four corrupt forces is clear about where the most
significant source of corruption lies:
Although New York police have used their official powers to protect or commit
every crime from burglary to election fraud and murder, the main source of
police corruption there has always been the purveyors of illegal pleasures:
prostitution, alcohol, gambling, and, in recent years, narcotics. (1978: xxv)
Shermans observation pretty much holds true for police forces everywhere. Officers
working in the areas cited above stand on what Manning and Redlinger (1977:354)
call the invitational edge of corruption where the temptations are particularly
acute. Goldstein (1975) refers to unenforceable laws: activities which are
prohibited by legislatures around the world, but which large numbers of people
continue to engage in. Even where there is public support for doing so it is not
straightforward for the police to enforce the law. The consequence is that nonenforcement is relatively common, and the opportunities for negotiating a price
for the exercise of discretion become frequent. Corruption becomes an easier
option. The Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in Queensland contemplated a
radical solution to this problem. It suggested:
restrictive laws which seek to prohibit activities for which there is a
substantial demand and which are very profitable encourage the involvement of
22
organised crime and corruption [L]egal sanctions do not necessarily prevent

harmful activities. If the law cannot be or is not enforced, its practical effect as a
disincentive to misbehaviour is decreased. It is brought into disrespect One
alternative may be decriminalisation. That would reduce demands on valuable
resources, allow regulation and control of activities and reduce or eliminate the
risk of associated crime. Decriminalisation or legalisation may also reduce the
risk of police corruption. (quoted in Palmer, 1992:119)
Corruption controls
Sherman argues that it is likely that the differences in levels of corruption between
police departments that appear to have similar organisational resources and
political environments may be accounted for by the central variable in his study,
social control inside and outside the agency (Sherman, 1978:41). Though few
others are prepared to speculate on the exact role played by controls, few doubt
that the absence of appropriate control mechanisms, or inadequate funding of, or
other support for, such controls is a powerful stimulant to corruption. The Mollen
Commission, for example, was scathing about the state of corruption controls
within the NYPD. In the face of massive corruption problems the Department:
allowed its systems for fighting corruption virtually to collapse For at least
the past decade, the system designed to protect the Department from corruption
minimized the likelihood of uncovering it. In a Department with a budget of
over one billion dollars, the basic equipment and resources needed to investigate
corruption successfully were routinely denied to corruption investigators;
internal investigations were prematurely closed and fragmented and targeted
petty misconduct more than serious corruption; intelligence-gathering was
minimal; integrity training was antiquated and often non-existent. (Mollen,
1994:2-3)
The social organisation of police corruption activities
Sherman argues that police corruption activities are socially organised in two basic
forms: arrangments and events. All corrupt acts are events. When they are
duplicated, generally on a regularised basis, they become arrangements. The crucial
difference between the two, according to Sherman, is that arrangements are more
susceptible to detection by premonitory investigatory methods. They are equally
susceptible to postmonitory control. In theory, therefore, the greater the degree of
organisation characterising corrupt activities within a force the easier they should
be to detect proactively. This is dependent however on a number of other factors,
including both the means and will to engage in detection of corrupt activities.
23
Systematic Police Cor ruption

In a highly systematised pattern, described to the Commission by numerous sources and
verified during our investigation, plainclothesmen collected regular bi-weekly or monthly
payoffs from gamblers on the first and fifteenth of each month, often at a meeting place
some distance from the gambling spot and outside the immediate police precinct or
division. The pad money was picked up at designated location by one or more bagmen
who were most often police officers but who occasionally were ex-policemen or civilians.
The proceeds were then pooled and divided up among all or virtually all of the divisions
plainclothesmen, with each plainclothes patrolman receiving an equal share. Supervisory
lieutenants who were on the pad customarily received a share and a half and, although
the Commission was unable to document particular instances, any commanding officer
who participated reportedly received two full shares. In addition, the bagman received a
larger cut, often an extra share, to compensate him for the risk involved in making his
collections.
(The Knapp Commission
, 1972:74)
Moral cynicism
In Goldsteins view the extent to which the nature of day-to-day police work
contributes to corruption has rarely been fully recognised:
The average officer especially in large cities sees the worst side of
humanity. He is exposed to a steady diet of wrongdoing. He becomes intimately
familiar with the ways people prey on one another. In the course of this
intensive exposure he discovers that dishonesty and corruption are not restricted
to those the community sees as criminal. He sees many individuals of good
reputation engaging in practices equally dishonest and corrupt It is not
unusual for him to develop a cynical attitude in which he views corruption as a
game in which every person is out to get his share. (1975:25)
According to Kleinig (1996:77) it is this cynicism about morality in general, and
about the moral seriousness of those they serve in particular, that results in the
moral constraints that should guide police conduct weakening. Police officers
recognise that they are expected to adhere to standards that they know others in
positions of power and responsibility do not necessarily observe. A further subject
of police cynicism may be the criminal justice system itself. According to Goldstein
(1975:25) an officer who sees the processing of hundreds of petty offenders through
a citys minor courts cannot help but be struck by the futility of the procedure the
lack of justice, the lack of dignity, and the ineffectiveness of the criminal process.
24
This experience may, under some circumstances, also lead to the kind of moral
cynicism described above and, more concretely, to an absence of concern about
fairness and justice in the exercise of their powers. From there, it is a small step to
the corrupt use of police discretion. The Fitzgerald and Wood Inquiries in Australia
made reference to the widespread nature of process corruption (verballing,
threats, planting evidence) with the former concluding that, in part, this was a
consequence of contempt for the criminal justice system, disdain for the law and
rejection of its application to the police, disregard for the truth, and abuse of
authority (Fitzgerald, 1989:200). Dixon (undated, a), examining numerous
inquiries into police malpractice and corruption, suggests that one of the common
features of such cases is derisory police attitudes towards the law: Police officers are
presented with, and themselves relay, contradictory messages: law is both the
fundamental structure of society and the object of their activities, and yet
simultaneously an irrelevant, outdated obstacle to the achievement of sociallymandated tasks of
crime control and order maintenance (undated, a: 6).
In this chapter we have examined the reasons for rejecting the bad apple theory
of police corruption and then considered 13 factors associated with the
development of corruption in police organisations. Before moving on to consider
strategies for the prevention of corruption I want, briefly, to conclude by
considering drug-related police corruption. There are two main reasons for this.
First, doing so illustrates many of the factors discussed in the main part of this
chapter. Secondly, there is currently considerable concern within the police
service in many different jurisdictions about possible increases in drug-related
corruption and the threats it poses.
Drug-related police cor ruption
The essence of Manning and Redlingers (1977) argument about the invitational
edges of corruption is that the problems police officers face in attempting to
regulate an illicit market such as the sale of drugs are similar to the problems
associated with the regulation of other (legitimate) markets. One of the key
differences is that sellers in illicit markets have limited opportunities for legitimate
political influence or for lobbying. Consequently, the focal point for effective
control of their market is enforcement agents. Hence:
The structural constraintsof legally suppressed markets expose the agent to an
accumulation of attempted influence. Because sellers want effective control over
their markets, they must find ways to neutralise enforcement agencies. If they
25
cannot avoid at least arrest and charge, and it is probable that eventually they
cannot, then they must attempt to gain favourable influence with agents.
(Manning and Redlinger, 1979:356)
Moreover, there are a number of other pressures associated with policing drugs
markets. First, there is generally no victim the exchange is usually consensual.
Therefore, enforcement officers are dependent on securing information from close
to the market. Doing so within the rules is not always straightforward. As a
consequence, Manning and Redlinger (1977:358) conclude that agent corruption
is a product of the requirements of narcotics law enforcement and a theme found in
the history of the enforcement enterprise. In addition to the absence of a victim,
the status of such offences is contested; there is widespread use of illicit drugs
despite potentially severe consequences if infractions of the law are detected and
prosecuted. It must also be acknowledged that the use of illicit drugs by police
officers themselves is also likely to have increased in recent years as recreational
use has grown among the general population. Undercover officers may be even
more prone to use than other officers (see Marx, 1988). This may have contributed
to the breaking down of the distinction between clean money (minor bribes
connection, for example, with the non-enforcement of traffic violations) and dirty
money (from activities widely regarded as illegitimate, such as drug-related crime)
(Maas, 1996; Mollen, 1994).
One commentator has suggested that drug trafficking and drug-related crime are
so pervasively corrupting that police confront almost impossible obstacles when
they attempt to move against them (Langer, 1989: 293).Drugs law enforcement has
a number of characteristics some of which it shares with other forms of policing
which make it particularly prone to corrupt practices:
it is usually secretive, duplicitous and quasi-legal (Manning and Redlinger,

1979);
the use of informants is widespread;
it is extremely difficult to regulate;
the war on drugs rhetoric often increases pressure for results;
securing sufficient evidence to convict is often difficult (the temptation to
26
engage in process corruption is great);

officers may be required to buy or, occasionally, use drugs in the course of their
work; and
very large sums of money may be available to the corrupt officer.
Research and official inquiries into the policing of illicit drugs in the UK and
abroad provide evidence of a broad range of corrupt activities: bribery of police
officers to lie on oath and to provide confidential records (Knapp Commission,
1972; Sherman, 1974); increased drug use by officers (Carter, 1990); participation
by police officers in drug dealing and protection of major drug operations (see
McAlary, 1996); arrogation of seized property; illegal searches and seizures (eg the
planting of drugs); the protection of informants; and, involvement in violence
(sometimes indiscriminate) (see Mollen, 1994: 2; also United States General
Accounting Office, 1998).
Manning and Redlinger (1979) conclude that officers working in the drug-related
area are more often placed upon an invitational edge of corruption. It is a
conclusion which applies more generally to all policing aimed at regulating legally
suppressed markets (such as prostitution and pornography). As should be clear by
this stage, these are indeed the areas of policing where corrupt practices, and
especially entrenched corrupt practices, are most often found. It is not just that
they are the forms of policing that are most proximate to the invitational edge of
corruption. These areas of policing also tend to be characterised by the greatest
degree of secrecy and invisibility from managerial, administrative or democratic
oversight. In addition, according to Carter (1990), police departments tend to have
inadequate policies, procedures, training, supervision, support resources, and
administrative control to detect and respond to officer drug use and corruption
(quoted in Henry, 1994: 170).
Here, then, is possibly the major problem now faced by those seeking to control
police corruption. Those areas of police work that have the strongest link with, or
are closest to, the invitational edge are also those which are generally subject to
the least managerial scrutiny and, in the specific case of drugs, are increasingly
associated with extraordinarily large sums of money and therefore very high levels
of (financial) temptation.
27
CORRUPTION CONTROL
4. Cor ruption control

10
The geographical focus is

largely determined by the
literature that has formed the
basis for this review. Wher
e
material is available, reference
will be made to forces in other
countries such as Japan.
This final chapter looks at the experience of attempting to prevent or control

police corruption in the UK, US and Australia.10 The bulk of the chapter focuses
on the strategies that have been adopted by forces and governments (local or
national) in combating corruption. Strategies are considered under four general
headings: human resource management; anti-corruption policies; internal controls;
and, the external environment and external controls.
Human resource management
Police forces that have experienced significant problems of corruption have
responded by amending a whole range of existing employment and training
practices, and by implementing new procedures. There is not the space here to be
exhaustive. For ease of discussion, we consider human resource management under
four broad headings: recruitment; training/ ethics; professional pride; and, police
management responsibility.
Recruitment
11
The Wood Commission

recommended raising the
minimum entry age in New
South Wales to 21.
A 1997 Commission on Police Integrity studying corruption in Chicago (the

largest US police department outside New York City) recommended higher
standards in relation to recruitment and screening (Commission on Police
Integrity, 1997). Key amongst the Commissions recommendations were: the
introduction of full screening of the background of all candidates; a higher
minimum age standard to be set at 23, arguing that 21 was too low (in that it
wouldnt allow for sufficient evaluation of adult work and behaviour records)11;
candidates with experience of higher education should be sought and those who
continue with their education once hired rewarded; and, most controversially, the
use of polygraph testing in its initial screening of candidates (a practice already
used by some law enforcement bodies in the US).
Training/ Ethics
Reforming recruit training is the most common response among police agencies
attempting to deal with corruption. Goldstein, writing in the 1970s (Goldstein,
1975) noted that most police training avoided discussion of corruption. This, he
suggested, was often done in the rather nave belief that discussing wrongdoing was
inherently undesirable and might even encourage such behaviour. The reverse is
true, he suggests, and subsequent discovery by new officers of the true dimensions
of corruption is among the major factors that discredit the value of recruit training
(Goldstein, 1975: 43).
28
CORRUPTION CONTROL
Even where discussion of ethics does form part of training, Goldstein argues that it
is generally done in a manner that is unlikely to resonate with new recruits or make
much difference to subsequent behaviour. If recruit training is to have any impact
on corruption, it must explore fully and realistically all the dimensions of the
problem and include specific examples of corruption known to exist or to have
existed in the department (1975: 43).
Goldsteins observations were almost certainly completely accurate in the 1970s,
and quite likely are still an accurate description of what happens in most
jurisdictions now. This is confirmed, for example, by the Wood Commission which
noted that recruit training in New South Wales had, until relatively recently, rarely
focused on ethics or integrity and had almost no element of practical application or
guidance. Moreover, the instruction which was available was often totally
inappropriate, with mentoring or buddying of new recruits often taking place in the
most high corruption sections of the force. These conclusions mirror those of the
earlier Mollen Inquiry in New York.
A new anti-corruption strategy was developed in New York which placed heavy
emphasis on ethics and values training for officers, especially those in supervisory
positions (Giuliani and Bratton, 1995). Wood recommended that the teaching of
ethics and integrity should be practically integrated in every aspect of police
education and training in New South Wales, from recruitment, through continuing
education to management training (1997: 542).
There are good reasons to believe that an emphasis on ethics and integrity is
important to tackling corruption in police departments (see Kleinig, 1996; Palmer
1992):
ethics contribute to the image of law enforcement as a profession;
a code of ethics helps to engender self-respect among individual officers;
a code of ethics may contribute to mutual respect among officers and to the
development of a positive esprit de corps;and
a code of ethics provides guidance as to howthe law should be enforced.
As Klockars (1985) points out in his discussion of the Dirty Harry Problem, moral
judgements about when to use dirty means rest on two technical issues: first, the
range of legitimate options available and, secondly, the competence of the
29
CORRUPTION CONTROL
individual officer. There is, in this regard, a straightforward link between training,
competence and malpractice/corruption. Straightforwardly, the better officers are at
using legitimate means, the less they will need to have recourse to illegitimate
ones. Police agencies that train their officers, and provide them with the resources
they require to achieve the goals of the job legitimately should, he argues, find that
its officers are less likely to (have to) resort to dirty means.
Professional pride
There is some disagreement in the literature over the significance of pride in
integrity. A common hypothesis is that the more pride police officers have in their
department, the more resistant they will be to corruption. Sherman, in his
examination of managerial reform strategies in four forces, found that little of the
reform executives attention (generally police administrators) was found to have
been directed at building pride. Rather, they tended to concentrate on the removal
of temptation and increasing fear of detection. As a consequence, he argues that
pride is the consequence of long-term reform efforts, rather than a cause of the
reduction of corruption. Fear of detection, he suggests, appears to be causally prior
to pride in integrity, at least in police departments in which corruption was once
widespread (Sherman, 1978: 144). On the other hand, there are those writing in
the field of corporate or business crime, for example, who take the view that
deterrence via the threat of prosecution is less likely to have lasting long-term
benefits than other more persuasive measures aimed at ensuring compliance
(Braithwaite, 1989). Central to such measures are increased emphasis on
managerial responsibility.
Police management responsibility
Management and supervision are discussed in greater detail below in connection
with internal control issues. However, there is one aspect of management that it is
most relevant to discuss at this point: the issue of responsibility. One of the
implications of the rejection of the bad apple theory is that, in order to proliferate,
corrupt practices need, at the very least, the implicit support of officers in
supervisory and managerial positions. One of the key aspects in any strategy
designed to tackle corruption is inculcating a sense of responsibility for police
integrity among staff in those positions. The best known strategy for tackling this is
that associated with Patrick V Murphy in New York. Integrity was a centrepiece of
his approach to reform and police commanders and supervisors were held
personally accountable for combatting corruption in their commands (Mollen,
1994). As Officer Frank Serpico said in his testimony to the Knapp Commission,
police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated at higher levels in the
Department (Mass, 1997:383).
30
CORRUPTION CONTROL
Punch (1994) refers to positive symbolic leadership. By this he means a form of

leadership in which senior officers state explicitly and openly that:
the ends never justify the means;
they are running a clean organisation even if this weakens their ostensible
effectiveness;
they will be as open as possible about internal deviance and will co-operate fully
with external agencies; and
they will personally serve as role models for integrity (Punch, 1994: 34).
The key point of positive leadership, he argues, is that it sends an unambivalent

message to the rest of the organisation and to those outside the organisation.
Anti-corruption policies
As with any change within organisations, it is policies that are changed first (and
then, one hopes, that practices change in line with policies). The area of
corruption control is no different and forces that have struggled with corrupt
practices have sought to develop policies that would codify the standards of
behaviour expected of staff and outline the general parameters of the organisations
response to the problem. Another aspect of Punchs model of positive social
control for police organisations is the role of what he refers to as codes and
compliance.
In addition to formal rules and regulations, he argues that police forces should
construct and adopt an ethical code which spells out a wider concern with
integrity and ethical behaviour in police work (1994: 34-5). The purposes of such
a code are to:
help to maintain ordinary moral decency in at least three ways. First a code
can simply serve to remind police of what is (and therefore what is not)
expected of them. Second, it can provide a common vocabulary for discussion
of hard cases Third, the emotional language so common in police might also
help to inspire an officer to do more than she would otherwise do. (Davis
quoted in Dixon, undated b:5)
Clearly, it is one thing to design and adopt a code of ethics, it is another to make it
meaningful to police officers. There may be considerable cynicism within
31
CORRUPTION CONTROL
organisations to general statements of intention. One method of reducing the

likelihood of this is to ensure that such codes, though given the firm backing of the
senior management of the organisation, are not drafted in a process that is solely
top down. Involving the community is also likely to add legitimacy and help avoid
the adoption of inappropriate or impractical rules. Moreover, it is not enough to
talk about ethical principles as abstract entities, they need to be tested against real,
concrete policing dilemmas. Punch suggests the establishment within forces of an
ethical commission that officers can appeal to confidentially and perhaps even
anonymously when faced with ethical dilemmas.
Equal consideration needs to be given to the means by which officers will be
encouraged or persuaded to comply with the standards set out in the code. Punch
suggests the use of a compliance officer whose concern is the establishment of
positive measures to engender compliance. His crucial point, however, is that
there is an organisational responsibility to consider, in as creative a way as
possible, how compliance can be maximised this is not something which can be
left to individual officers. More particularly, the responsibility of supervisory
officers for the promotion of ethical conduct should be reinforced wherever
possible. Ethical behaviour should be rewarded and not just unethical or corrupt
behaviour punished.
Finally, it is worth briefly commenting on the relationship between codes of ethics
and other rules governing police behaviour and the exercise of discretion. It is
sometimes suggested that the adoption of codes will result in the unhelpful
fettering of police discretion. This, however, is not the logic of such codes. Indeed,
as Dixon (undated, b: 26) points out: the dichotomy between rules and discretion
is false. An elaborate structure of rules is inevitable, given the nature of policing.
Such rules should not aim to suppress discretion, but to improve its exercise.
Discretion is no more inherently undesirable than rules. Good policing inevitably
involves officers taking responsibility for their decisions. The regulation of
discretion should aim to assist officers in doing so.
Internal controls
Sherman (1987) distinguishes between two kinds of internal control policies:
preventive control and punitive control. The latter are attempts to deter
malpractice and corruption through an increased emphasis on detection and
punishment of wrongdoing. The former, as the name implies, refers to those
policies that seek to change the organisation in ways that would serve to prevent
the commission of corrupt practices.
32
CORRUPTION CONTROL
Preventive control
Under this general rubric three main approaches to changing the organisation
and, in particular, to changing internal administrative practices may be identified:
internal accountability; tight supervision; and, the abolition of procedures that
encourage corruption.
Internal accountability
One of the issues for police agencies is how to ensure that those in supervisory and
managerial positions take responsibility for tackling corruption. While police
departments may place great emphasis, at least at a rhetorical level, on the idea of
accountability to the community, it is frequently the case that they are reluctant to
impose accountability within the organisation (Nixon and Reynolds, 1996). One of
the responses to the identification of widespread corruption is the institutionalisation of an internal accountability policy. Such a policy seeks to diffuse
responsibility for control of misconduct both vertically and horizontally. In effect
the organisation does this by employing, in essence, the idea of vicarious liability.
Under such a policy managers are held responsible for the behaviour of their staff,
and peers are held to be responsible for ensuring probity within the ranks. In the
aftermath of both the 1970s and 1990s corruption scandals in New York this was a
key issue. The response in both cases, in the words of the Mollen Commission, was
reinventing the enforcement of command accountability (Mollen, 1994: 5).
Tight supervision
Increased or tightened supervision is an almost ubiquitous response to the
emergence of a corruption scandal. The extent to which this is possible is
constrained by the extent of decentralisation already present within the police
agency. In Chicago in the 1990s one of the responses to corruption was to increase
emphasis on early warning systems. The use of such systems is based, largely, on
the idea of the slippery slope of corruption. As the Commission on Police
Integrity (1997: 20) put it, in almost all instances, police officers who get into
serious trouble begin with relatively minor violations of department rules which
evolve over time into [more serious] behaviour.12
One way of tightening control is to increase the number of rules and the amount of
paperwork. However, there are numerous examples where officers have been able to
comply with the bureaucratic requirements, whilst continuing with activities which
are clearly outside the standards of behaviour the forms are attempting to instil (see
McAlary, 1994). In New York after the Knapp Commission, decentralisation, but
not debureaucratisation, was the principal strategy, in particular the increase of
33
12
Even the most serious cases,

such as that of Officer Michael
Dowd in New York in the
1990s appear to have started
with more minor rule violations
such as the exploitation of sick
leave. (See McAlary, 1994).
CORRUPTION CONTROL
corruption control powers to field commanders. A policy of supervisory presence at

arrests was adopted for a few corruption-prone patrol tasks. The most elaborate
procedure employed in Newburgh in the US was the installation of tachographs in
patrol cars.
Abolition of procedures encouraging corruption
There are some areas of policing which are much more prone to corruption than
routine police work. As Goldstein, Punch and others point out, the places where
corruption is most likely to be found are quite predictable. It is possible to identify
formal police procedures that inadvertently encourage corruption. For example:
unrealistic productivity targets; inadequate means for paying informants; and,
insufficient funds for buying drugs from dealers. The reform administration in New
York ceased using arrest productivity as a means of evaluating individual
performance, and sought to move away from using reported crime rates as a means
of assessing the performance of particular field commanders. Funds for informers
and buy money for drugs were increased substantially.
Punitive control
Sherman argues that the punitive control policies are practical applications of the
deterrence theory: the policies were attempts to increase the detection and
punishment of corrupt acts in order to deter all officers in each department from
engaging in corrupt acts (Sherman, 1978: 146). Punitive control strategies are
discussed under two headings: detection and investigation.
Detection
This refers to the process by which control systems gain information about rule
violations. It is important first to distinguish types of intelligence. Intelligence may
be proactively or reactively collected (in Shermans terms it may be premonitory
or postmonitory, Sherman, 1978). Premonitory systems acquire information before
or during the act, postmonitory systems get information after the act. The former
are generally more reliable than the latter. However, corrupt police agencies do
not generally employ premonitory control methods to detect police corruption. By
definition, such departments approve of corruption and do not seek to punish it,
except in excessive instances that threaten to draw public attention to police
corruption in general (Sherman, 197: 45). There are three primary sources of
intelligence about police corruption: citizens; police officers themselves; and, the
probing of police activities.
34
CORRUPTION CONTROL
Citizens: Every police agency receives some information about possible police
corruption from members of the public. This is despite the fact that the social
organisation of corruption means that most of it will remain hidden from the
public. How prepared and how well organised police agencies are to collect and
respond to such intelligence varies. A number of issues arise here. How can
police agencies ensure that complaints of corruption are properly and fully
recorded? Adopting and enforcing procedural rules for controlling the intake of
complaints is problematic. Going public on the difficulties associated with the
management of complaints may in itself lead to a drop in the number of
complaints being made. One method of testing the system is to have internal
affairs or complaints investigation bureaux telephone anonymous complaints
themselves and then study recording and reporting practices. There is a second
problem associated with such reports: how should police agencies treat
anonymous reports of corruption and malpractice? A proportion of people
making complaints will wish to remain anonymous. Yet for a number of reasons,
but particularly protecting officers from malicious complaints, some agencies are
reluctant to accept anonymous reports. Sherman is unclear how much difference
the quantity of corruption intelligence received from the public makes to the
ability of internal policing units to detect corruption. Moreover, most of the
intelligence provided is used for postmonitory detection. Nonetheless, the more
flexible and responsive police agencies are to reports from the public, the greater
the likelihood that they will enhance their premonitory intelligence capabilities.
Police officers: The best source of intelligence is that from police officers: both
honest and corrupt officers, though it is the latter who are of greatest use to
investigators. As Sherman (1978: 159) puts it: while honest officers still had
more opportunity than citizens to infer corruption or to observe it accidentally,
they may still have been ignorant of much or most of the corruption activities.
What honest officers did not know, corrupt officers did know. The problem was
to induce corrupt officers to betray their co-conspirators and provide the
information needed for premonitory detection of corruption.
Two assumptions about policing and corruption have made agencies shy away
from attempting to use corrupt officers as a source of premonitory intelligence.
The first is the idea that corruption is simply the province of a few bad apples
and that once they have been discarded the problem is dealt with. The second
is that police agencies are often thought to be overridingly loyal and
monolithic the code of silence is too strong to allow officers to betray their
colleagues. As we have seen in previous chapters, there are strong reasons to
believe both of these assumptions to be misplaced. The bad apple theory has
35
INTRODUCTION
13
Indeed, following the work of

Chan and others it also
recognised that to talk of one
police culture was to
considerably overstate its
homogeneity
.
been rejected by most of the major inquiries into police corruption. The idea
of a monolithic police culture is also now challenged. Thus, the Wood
Commission, using the work of Chan (see Chan, 1997) rejected explanations
of corruption as the product of police culture13, and argued that significant
cultural change was possible.
Enlisting the support of honest officers in the battle against corruption whilst
essential, was recognised to be far from easy. Nonetheless, the Mollen
Commission were optimistic and argued, in part on the basis of the reforms
introduced by Commissioner Murphy after the Knapp Commission, that such a
strategy was possible. What they might also have noted, however, was that
although such a strategy is possible, and probably necessary, it comes with its
own costs. New York under Patrick Murphy was one force that did successfully
use police officers in the fight against corruption. The most controversial policy
in New York was undoubtedly the use of field associates.
Field Associates The New York Experience

Where previously only the organised crime and narcotics units in the New York Police
had an undercover capability, under Murphy one was added to the Internal Affairs
Division. The field associates programme was designed to break the code of silence which
was viewed as hampering the fight against corruption. Literally hundreds of officers,
estimated as being up to one in ten officers in patrol precincts (Henry, 1990) agreed to
report any corrupt activities among their colleagues.
Reports of corrupt activities increased significantly as a result, in part, of this strategy. In
addition, it appears that the strategies adopted by the reform administration in NYPD
were, at least temporarily, successful in reducing corruption within the Department.
However, one of the consequences of the field associates programme was the rise of a
significant morale problem.
According to McCormack and Ward (1987) in order to be successful a field

associates programme needs to be well publicised internally, and all officers
encouraged to participate.
It is now widely recognised that intelligence and information from officers is one
vital weapon in tackling corruption. For example, the Knapp Commission,
perhaps best known for its distinction between grass eaters and meat eaters
also included a third category: the birds. The birds were officers who flew above
36
CORRUPTION CONTROL
the corruption, seeking safety in the safe and rarefied air of administrative
positions (Henry, 1994). At some point in the future, however, once promoted
into senior management positions, the birds would come to play a vital role in
the reform of the police department.
Probing police activities: This is the generally proactive detection of corruption

by internal police units. Internal affairs units are relatively common in police
agencies that have, or are concerned about, problems of corrupt practice.
Aggressive action against corruption is inherently problematic for those working
within the organisation. It is, for obvious reasons, easier for outsiders to be
tough. Because of this it is important at least in part for internal authority to be
insulated from the pressures that would corrupt it (Marx, 1992:157). This is
perhaps the primary impetus for the establishment of internal affairs capabilities.
In addition to the detective function that such units have, McCormack
(1987:155) suggests that:
A strong proactive internal affairs initiative provides an excuse for being
honest that may be acceptable to many of the rank and file Under intense
supervision, reluctance to engage in unethical conduct may be viewed not
only as acceptable but also prudent. As a result, many officers who are
seeking ethical guidance may secretly welcome such efforts if policies are
realistic and fair.
In studying the work of such units, Sherman lists four sources of probing:
Criminal informants: though they are often unreliable, Sherman suggests

such informants have the best access to information. In a few cases in New
York such informants were paid for their information, others were offered
immunity from arrest.
Wiretaps: these were used in some police departments on both professional

criminals and officers suspected of corrupt activities.
Corruption patrols: these were members of the internal policing units who
looked for general indications of corruption activities. Locations known for
gambling, prostitution, drugs sales and illegal drinking would be observed for
signs of payoffs.
37
CORRUPTION CONTROL
14
Marx (1992:167) describes a

case reported in theNew York
Times where, as part of an FBI
investigation, an informer
offered a $5000 bribe to [a]
superintendent of police, who at
first pretended to be interested.
However, as the bribe was to
be passed, the superintendent
rejected it and ar
rested the
informer. He later sought to
have the FBI agents involved
arrested for bribery. The FBI in
turn threatened to have him
arrested on obstruction of
justice charges. The FBI
demanded its money and
bugging equipment back, while
[police department] officials
wanted to give the $5,000 to
charity. In addition, the
Australian High Court recently
ruled that drug importation
s
done as part of sting
operations were illegal, forcing
state and federal parliaments to
pass laws allowing the police to
break the law.
Integrity tests: are perhaps one of the most controversial tactics. Artificial
situations would be constructed in which officers would be given an
opportunity to commit corrupt acts. Officers who failed the test would be
arrested. Oakland Police Department used integrity tests in relation to its
most persistent form of corruption thefts of property from arrestees (using
criminology students as stooges) whereas in New York integrity tests were
used across the range of corrupt activities: theft from persons and property;
protection of (fake) gambling operations; and drugs sales. Such tests change
the question being asked from is he corrupt? to is he corruptible? (Marx,
1992). More recently in the UK the idea of integrity testing has been adapted
as one of the proposed responses to the problem of racism (Macpherson,
1999). Ethical tests raise a host of ethical questions. There are, for example,
issues about the proper role of the state and about how enticing
inducements to corruption can be reasonably made. Kleinig (1996:161) takes
the view that when people are entrapped we lack an evidentiary basis for
thinking of them as criminals. In practical terms, the outcome of stings and
integrity tests is itself often confusing.14
Marx (1988; 1992) refers to the more sophisticated covert practices now practised
widely in policing as the new surveillance. Crucially, it is particularly well suited
to corruption control: the diffuse, often victimless quality of corruption lends itself
well to discovery via covert means (1992:155). This is a position endorsed by
Sherman (1978) who suggested that premonitory detection strategies were
associated with, at least short-term, declines in corrupt activities. It is worth noting
Marxs (1992:164) point, however, that there have been no systematic efforts to
evaluate the governments use of undercover tactics against itself.
Investigation
Sherman (1978) argues that the detection of corruption is a necessary, but not a
sufficient, condition for the imposition of punitive sanctions against corruption.
Detection may provide the targets, investigation then generally follows in its wake,
before sanctions can be considered. The literature on police corruption is, however,
full of sorry tales of the failure of police forces to investigate properly allegations of,
or intelligence concerning, corrupt practices (see, for example, McAlary, 1994).
Given the relative invisibility of corrupt activities, the collection of direct
evidence of the commission of a corrupt act requires particular tactics. The targets
of investigation vary and may be broad or narrow (ie the identified officer(s) or
broader groups of which they are a part). The nature of the definition used is
38
CORRUPTION CONTROL
linked closely with the method of investigation followed and the model of
corruption held by investigators. The use of a more limited definition generally
means that a model of investigation along the lines of a criminal trial will be
adopted where the focus is on establishing whether specific events occurred. This
mode is based on a largely individualistic model of corruption. It tends not to
consider patterns and trends in corruption, and by focusing on individuals rather
than groups or networks, it runs the risk of tipping off others who may be
involved in corruption activities. A broader definition is closer to fishing
expedition. It always looks for patterns in corruption focuses on arrangements
rather than events and has as its target the greatest number of corrupt officers
possible. As a strategy it allows investigators to postpone making arrests until the
optimum amount of evidence has been collected.
As with detection, investigation increasingly involves undercover
techniques.These include: surveillance; turn-arounds; body-microphones; wiretaps;
and, faked situations Whilst intelligence from wiretaps, direct observation by
corruption patrol officers, and integrity tests have all proved important in anticorruption activities, verbal testimony remains the most common source of
information in this, as in all forms of criminal investigation. However, the manner
in which such interviews are conducted may impact on the willingness of witnesses
to provide evidence, and the timing may affect the possibility of gathering
premonitory evidence. There are notable examples of police forces being openly
antagonistic towards members of the public alleging corrupt activities (McAlary,
1994; Maas, 1997), with complainants finding themselves subject to crossexamination and interrogation. The failure to ensure the co-operation of witnesses
reduces the opportunity of collecting important postmonitory evidence of corrupt
activities, but also undermines sometimes fatally the opportunity for enlisting
the help of the witness in premonitory activities. Interviews conducted too early in
an investigation may also impact negatively on the opportunity for gathering
premonitory information. Rather in the manner of the precipitate arrest,
interviewing a key player in a network of corruption may tip off all the others
involved and lead to the destruction of other evidence.
The external environment and external controls
In addition to implementing strategies aimed at changing the organisation,
strategies aimed at changing the environment are also important in tackling
corruption. As was outlined in Chapter Three, there are considerable pressures on
police agencies to become corrupt from the organisational environment. The two
major environmental elements posing a threat have been labelled the task
39
CORRUPTION CONTROL
environment and the political environment (Sherman, 1978). In this view,

changes in enforcement policies may be effective in reducing some of the risks
from parts of the task environment, but they do not directly impact on the
environment itself. A key aspect of this part of preventive control tend to be
policies which attempt to change the behaviour of key actors in the task
environment: the corrupters and potential corrupters of the police, and the
victims and potential victims of police corruption (Sherman, 1978: 137). One
approach involves the attempt to encourage the public to be more vigilant and
more willing to report suspicions of corruption forces tend to vary as to whether
they will accept anonymous allegations. Of all the strategies to change the task
environment studied by Sherman, the most systematic was a bribery arrest
campaign in New York.
The Bribery Ar rest Campaign, New York City, 1971

In September 1971, in a speech to the New York City Chamber of Commerce, the
Commissioner of Police launched an attack on the police-corrupting public. He
announced that it takes two to bribe. He told the businessmen that police officers would
no longer respond to bribery attempts by saying you can get into trouble talking like
that. Instead, he put the public on notice that the new response to bribe offers would be,
you are under arrest. On the same day he issued a teletype message to all officers
ordering them to ar rest any briber, whoever the person, whatever the occasion, including
hotel managers, restaurant owners, merchants, building superintendents, housing
contractors, tow-truck drivers, and motorists. The rank and file responded immediately
with a dramatic increase in the number of bribery arrests. The Commissioner held several
press conferences at which he praised officers who had spurned large sums. Some of them
were even promoted.
From: Sherman, L.W. (1978) Scandal and Refor
m
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to reforming a corrupt police department is the

existence of a corrupt political environment. This is particularly relevant in
jurisdictions such as the US and Australia, where greater local control of the police
service exists. Shermans work on four US cities found evidence of a dramatic
change in the integrity of the local political environments, enabling the police
department to sever the main links between politics and police corruption.
As I have already discussed, one of the standard responses of leaders of
organisations faced with strong evidence of corruption within that organisation is
40
CORRUPTION CONTROL
to suggest that corrupt activities are simply the product of one or two individuals
who are out of control. The organisation, it is implied, is clean. For this and other
reasons it is generally significantly more difficult to have organisations defined as
corrupt than it is to do so in relation to individuals. Thus, in parallel with
corporate crime it is possible often for the organisation to avoid sanctions because
the focus of prosecutions is generally on individuals and, similarly, individuals may
sometimes be able successfully to use the organisation as a shield (Punch, 1996).
Four obstacles have been identified as hindering the investigation and prosecution
of organisations:
Resources are not routinely allocated to the control of deviant organisations.

There are two main reasons for this. First deviance is generally defined socially
and legally in individual rather than organisational terms. Secondly, there is a
general expectation that organisations will control or police themselves.
Organisations often have a considerable capacity to keep information about

their deviant activities from reaching control systems. It is generally difficult for
those outside an organisation to discover what goes on inside (and this is
particularly the case when internal activities are corrupt).
Organisations can often prevent other organisations from exerting control over
them. Sherman argues that two legitimate grounds are often cited by control
agents to account for their failure to mobilize control in response to information
about deviance. First, that the information is false or that the source is
unreliable. Secondly, that the information available is insufficient to meet the
standards of proof required.
Even when social control is mobilised there are few effective means of
punishment. Punitive sanctions may be both material and symbolic. The former
are rarely applied to organisations, the latter can be. It is for this reason that
during corruption scandals there tends to be a battle of definition over whether
the deviance identified is deviance by individual members or deviance
characteristic of the entire organisation. As Sherman (1978: 24-5) puts it: the
imposition of a symbolic sanction against the organisation is a matter of
manipulation of appearances.
Where there is widespread corruption, relatively little is likely to change in the

absence of scandal (Sherman, 1978). The heat produced by major scandals can
have a genuinely if often short-lived reformatory effect. In large part, of course, this
is because of the activity and action that the scandal stimulates. For example,
41
CORRUPTION CONTROL
15
Even minor scandals,

according to Sherman, appear
to make little difference to levels
of corruption with police
departments.
environmental pressures and opportunities for corruption, an absence of internal

control and a corrupt dominant coalition must be replaced by a change in or
insulation from the environment, an increase in internal control and a new
dominant coalition dedicated to reform if corruption is to be tackled. None are
likely to happen in the absence of external scandal15.
Because of the role of scandal in the process of reform it is important to consider
the role of some of the major official inquiries that have been set up the aftermath
of scandals Knapp, Mollen, Fitzgerald, Wood. Commissions can become the focus
of change or reform programmes and may give such programmes their (initial)
impetus (see, for example, Nixon and Reynolds, 1996 on the Fitzgerald Inquiry in
Queensland). Indeed, the study of such inquiries and of corruption control
strategies leads to three general conclusions:
corruption, including widespread and institutionalised corruption, may be

signficantly reduced if the right conditions pertain and the appropriate strategies
are adopted;
scandal, and official public inquiries set up in the aftermath may play a vital role
in the establishment of successful corruption control strategies;
even in a successfully reformed police agency, some low level corruption is

likely to persist; and
without extreme vigilance more organised corruption is likely to re-appear.
Possible unintended consequences of corruption control

Before concluding it is important to consider one final issue. Running throughout
this report has been the assumption that it is important to prevent or control
corrupt activities notwithstanding the fact that corruption may be difficult to
define and, in practice, may sometimes not be easily distinguishable from deviant
behaviour which falls short of corruption. Following from this there is the
assumption that efforts to control or prevent corruption are to be seen as a positive
development. Whilst that may be so, it is also important to acknowledge two other
points. First, that corruption control strategies are not always ethically
uncomplicated. Secondly, that corruption control strategies may have unintended
as well as intended consequences. This is particularly the case given the increased
use of undercover techniques. It is imperative that the parameters of prevention
strategies are acknowledged.
42
CORRUPTION CONTROL
As Marx points to in much of his work, undercover or covert tactics raise troubling
issues. These include:
the stimulation of crime that would not otherwise have occurred;
the redirection of resources away from crimes known to the police towards
possible offences;
the involvement of police officers in criminal activity;
inappropriate behaviour on the part of the state;
the protection of criminals, and the non-prosecution of offences committed by

those criminals, because of their usefulness; and
where state officials are themselves the target of such tactics, the danger is that
the legitimacy of particular state institutions is threatened.
The reform of a corrupt police dept is a major social change and is only achieved at
a certain cost. There may be unintended, and sometimes undesirable,
consequences:
There may be an increase in individualised police corruption (as individual

officers seek to maintain their standard of living). However, he goes on to argue
that any increase in individual corruption may well be short-lived, pride in the
department as an honest organisation could eventually pose strong opposition to
officers persisting in individualised corrupt acts (1978: 257).
Certain civil liberties principles may be sacrificed as the use of covert

surveillance increases. There is the possibility that police officers that feel that
their own rights are violated by their superiors might be less willing to protect
the rights of the public they police.
There may, at least for a period, be a significant impact on the public perception
of policing and a concomitant decrease in the legitimacy accorded the police.
Aggressive attempts at controlling corruption within the police organisation may

create challenges in which employees in effect say if by your actions you imply
that you dont trust me and treat me like a potential criminal when I work hard
and risk my life, then Ill show you (Marx, 1992: 168). Punch (1994) notes that
43
CORRUPTION CONTROL
the paradox is that more control can weaken control by disturbing normal
patterns and generating resentment. He goes on to argue:
There is no doubt that there has to be close supervision, formal prohibitions,
and strong sanctions in an organisation with such a sensitive task as police
have and with a mandate that is defined by the criminal law. If a policeman
is corrupt then he is a criminal and must expect tough sanctions. But it is
doubtful if a tough regime is the best remedy for the corruption issue.
Probably the two most important elements are clarity of guidelines and
seriousness of resources Everyone in the organisation must know what is
not acceptable and that infringements will be pursued professionally and with
vigour. (Punch, 1994: 33-4)
There seems to be considerable agreement with this position. McCormack (1996)
for example has suggested that it is quite possible to effect behavioural change
within organisations as a result of the imposition of strong internal controls which
heighten the risk of detection. However, he argues that long-term change depends
more upon internalising new ethical standards (McCormack, 1996: 245). Both, it
appears, are required. Sherman says that conformity to organisational policy is
maintained by a good balance of pride and fear, deterrence and voluntary
compliance (quoted by McCormack, 1996). Just to prove the point that this is
simpler than it sounds, Simpson notes that the question of what constitutes a
good balance seems, however, to be what constitutes the problem in this
discussion (Simpson, 1977: 136).
44
CONCLUSION: TOWARD ETHICAL POLICING
5. Conclusion: Toward ethical policing

What are we to make of the evidence that is currently available on the subject of
police corruption? First of all, we must repeat the points made several times during
this report. Police corruption is not new, it has been part of policing for as long as
we have had policing. It is also pervasive. It is unlikely that there are many police
organisations that are completely corruption-free. That said, although most police
organisations are likely to be able to find examples of corruption within their ranks,
examples of organised corruption do not reach the public domain all that
frequently. In part, because individual cases of corruption are more visible, the
idea of bad apples in otherwise clean barrels continues to have considerable
currency. This is reinforced by a reluctance on the part of police agencies to admit
to organisational corruption, even where there is evidence to suggest that corrupt
activities are entrenched.
However, the bad apple theory of police corruption has, at least as far as official
inquiries are concerned, now effectively been discredited. Successive Commissions
of Inquiry have catalogued examples of highly organised, systemic corruption.
Often, but by no means always, such corruption has been located within specialist
parts of the police service, in particular those units dealing with the regulation of
so-called victimless crimes (Schur, 1965) such as prostitution, gambling and illicit
drugs. The implication of this observation that the places that corruption appears
are rarely surprising is that it should be possible to target any anti-corruption
strategies adopted by particular police agencies in those areas where organised
corruption is most likely to develop. However, equally important is that whilst
strategic prevention and control are the proper aims of anti-corruption strategies,
outright elimination of corrupt practices is generally unrealistic. Eleven key points
summarise the general messages arising from this review:
police corruption is pervasive, continuing and not bounded by rank;
any definition of corruption should cover both financial and process

corruption, and should acknowledge the varying means, ends and motives of
corrupt activities;
the boundary between corrupt and non-corrupt activities is difficult to define,

primarily because this is at heart an ethical problem;
police corruption cannot simply be explained as the product of a few bad

apples;
the causes of corruption include: factors that are intrinsic to policing as a job;
45
the nature of police organisations; the nature of police culture; the

opportunities for corruption presented by the political and task environments;
and, the nature and extent of the effort put in to controlling corruption;
some areas of policing are more prone to corruption than others;
although there are many barriers to successful corruption control, there is

evidence that police agencies can be reformed;
reform needs to go beyond the immediately identified problem;
reform must look at the political and task environments as well as the
organisation itself;
reform tends not to be durable; and
continued vigilance and scepticism is vital.
As is suggested above, there are certain areas of policing that are more prone to
corruption than others: vice, drugs, licensing and those areas where police officers
have regulatory powers are generally cited as being corruption-prone and, indeed,
figure largely in accounts of police corruption around the world (Mollen, 1994;
Morton, 1992; Wood, 1997). Punch (1994) suggests that three issues emerge from
this fact. First, given that there is some predictability to corruption there should be
some cautious anticipation of the dangers that might result from certain types of
policing and from the placing of particular individuals close to the invitational
edge. Second, this means that vulnerable people should not be placed in
situations where the opportunities are particularly tempting to them. Clearly, there
are problems in defining vulnerability in this regard. Officers known to have, or
have had, drink problems and officers with debts might be two that would fall into
the category. Thirdly, it is, or at least may be, possible to reduce opportunities in
particular areas. Punch (1994), for example, suggests it is quite possible to remove
some kickback opportunities by taking some decisions out of the hands of officers.
Police agencies often respond to the inherent vulnerability of some jobs by
ensuring that the staff posted to them are rotated on a regular basis. The Fitzgerald
Report (1989) recommended the rotation of officers in sensitive or high risk areas
on a three year to five year basis. Regular drug-testing of employees is becoming
more common and though in operation in New York prior to the Mollen
Commission inquiry into corruption, was tightened up subsequently. Finally, a
declaration of assets and financial interests is one further way of screening
46
employees both for potential vulnerability and for unexplained income. This has
now become standard for senior officers in the New South Wales Police Service
and for all officers working in designated sensitive areas (Palmer, 1992).
One response to the challenge of corruption has been to propose that the whole
approach agencies take to the task of policing needs to be reformed. More
particularly, some commentators have suggested that the adoption of the approach
and style generally associated with community policing is likely to reduce the
likelihood of corruption (Bracey, 1992). This, for example, is the response adopted
by the New South Wales Police Service in answer to to concerns about corruption
raised by the Lusher Inquiry (Lusher, 1981).
Whilst there is much in the community policing model which, if implemented
successfully, would be expected to reduce certain forms of corrupt activity
especially process corruption there are great dangers in treating community
policing as if it were a panacea for the problems of policing, corruption included.
First, as this report should have made clear, designing a strategy for tackling
corruption requires an approach that is multi-faceted and focuses both on the
environment being policed as well as the police organisation itself. Secondly, it is
perfectly possible that community policing itself brings with it a certain
corruption-proneness the possibility that corrupt practices may be facilitated and
will flourish unless particular vigilance is exercised. As Kleinig (1996: 232) puts it,
police who become too closely identified with and involved in the community
they serve often find it difficult to fulfil their law enforcement function. The risk of
corruption must also be faced. Not only will associations be forged that make
enforcement difficult, but police may start to share some of the perspectives of
those whose activities they are expected to be curbing. The likelihood is that any
style or approach to policing will bring with it certain implications for corruption
and, therefore, for corruption control. While there may be many arguments that
can be advanced in support of community policing (or problem oriented policing,
and so on) a reduction in the opportunities or likelihood of corruption is unlikely
to be central.
At the core of this report is the idea that the central facet of any anti-corruption
strategy should be an emphasis on ethical policing. Much corrupt behaviour by
police officers bribery, shake-downs, the protection of criminal activity is in
itself illegal and therefore clearly unethical. There is, however, as Chapter Three
illustrated, a range of other activities which are not so straightforwardly classified.
Policing involves making difficult ethical choices or decisions. There is
considerable evidence to suggest that police agencies have tended to downplay, or
47
to completely ignore, the ethical dilemmas that their officers inevitably have to
confront. Relatively little emphasis, if any, is put on ethics training for new recruits
or for those in service. Indeed, statements or codes of ethics, where they exist,
often tend to be little more than general statements of intent which simply sit in
folders or hang decoratively on office walls, rather than living documents which
inform day-to-day practice and are the subject of active discussion and debate.
Without doubt, a much more sustained focus on what might constitute ethical
policing is not only a key challenge for the police service in the next century, but
an important element in the attempt to control corruption.
Of course, these issues do not only affect the police. There has in the UK in recent
years been an increasing focus on ethics and standards in public life. Whilst, at
least initially, these discussions were largely confined to political life, there are
good reasons why such principles should be extended to public services such as the
police service. Integrity which has formed a very significant focus in this report
lies at the heart of the Nolan principles (Nolan, 1998). Nolan defines this
straightforwardly as the duty of holders of public office not to place themselves
under any financial or other obligation to individuals or organisations that might
influence them in the performance of their official duties. The Nolan Committee
went on to outline six other principles of public life selflessness, objectivity,
accountability, openness, honesty and leadership and to argue that these applied
across the public service. Such principles require some elaboration in order to
clarify their precise application to policing. However, they potentially provide the
basis for the establishment of something that might be recognised as ethical
policing not dissimilar to attempts that have previously been made, for example,
to articulate the values that underpin what might be described as democratic
policing (Jones et al, 1994).
Ethical policing is, however, not a solution to the problem of corruption. Partly,
this is because any successful anti-corruption strategy must involve much more
besides. Equally, however, it is because as is the case with many significant social
or organisational problems, there is no such thing as a solution. There are two
fundamental reasons for this. First, responses to complex problems are themselves
usually complex or multi-faceted. They are rarely simple or straightforward.
Secondly, rarely is it the case that such problems are solved. Rather, the more
realistic aim is usually to attempt to minimise the impact of the problem. The
available evidence suggests that corruption within the police is unlikely ever to
be completely eliminated. Unfortunately, all too often official inquiries into
police corruption somewhat undermine the force of their otherwise impressively
realistic recommendations by suggesting that the implementation of new tactics
48
will, for example, enable a new Commissioner to drive corruption from the
ranks (Mollen, 1994: 6).
The are a number of dangers that may result from such an assumption. The first is
the danger that unrealistic expectations will be created among the public leading to
a sense of betrayal when (possibly minor) future examples of corrupt activity come
to light (as they surely will). Secondly, and alternatively, it may simply increase
public scepticism about the ability of the service to reform itself. Similarly,
pronouncements about the aim of completely eliminating corruption may lead to
disenchantment and/or scepticism within the police service itself. Finally, and
perhaps most importantly, such nave assumptions about corruption may lead police
management, and others responsible for the governance of the police, to take their
eye off the ball.
The evidence reviewed in this report suggests that any complacency about
corruption, or lack of realism about the prospects of reform, will lead to the cycle
beginning all over again. Whilst there are examples of conspicuous success in
reforming highly corrupt police forces, there are equally conspicuous examples of
corruption returning with equal if not greater force to those self-same forces some
years in the future. Vigilance and realism must be the watchwords of the police
administrator seeking to control corruption.
49
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55
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Grubin. 1998.
100. Policing Domestic Violence: Effective Organisational Structures.

Joyce Plotnikoff and Richard Woolfson. 1999.
101. Pulling the Plug on Computer Theft. Paula Whitehead and Paul
Gray. 1999.
102. Face Value? Evaluating the Accuracy of Eyewitness Information.
Mark R. Kebbell and Graham F. Wagstaff. 1999.
103. Applying Economic Evaluation to Policing Activity. J.E. Stockdale,
C.M.E. Whitehead and P.J.Gresham. 1999.
104. Arresting Evidence: Domestic Violence and Repeat Victimisation.
Jalna Hanmer, Sue Griffiths and David Jerwood. 1999.
105. Proactive Policing on Merseyside. Alana Barton, Roger Evans. 1999.
106. Tenure: Policy and Practice. Gary Mundy. 1999.
107. Career Progression of Ethnic Minority Police Officers. Nick Bland,
Gary Mundy, Jacqueline Russell and Rachel Tuffin. 1999.
108. Preventing Residential Burglary in Cambridge: From Crime Audits
to Targeted Strategies. Trevor Bennett and Linda Durie. 1999.
109. Policing Drug Hot-Spots. Jessica Jacobson. 1999.
56
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Understand and Preventing Police Corruptions

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Understand and Preventing Police Corruptions

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Police Research Series

Understanding and preventing

Editor: Barry Webb

Crown Copyright 1999

Policing and Reducing Crime Unit: Police Research Series

Copies of this publication can be made available in formats accessible to

police corruption is pervasive, continuing and not bounded by rank;

any definition of corruption should cover both financial and process

the boundary between corrupt and non-corrupt activities is difficult to define,

police corruption cannot simply be explained as the product of a few bad

some areas of policing are more prone to corruption than others;

although there are many barriers to successful corruption control, there is

reform needs to go beyond the immediately identified problem;

reform tends not to be durable; and

continued vigilance and scepticism is vital.

2. What is police cor ruption?

3.The causes of police cor ruption

5. Conclusion: Toward ethical policing

Recent Police Research Group and Policing and Reducing

Types and dimensions of police corruption

Arguments supporting and opposing the acceptance

Resolving the Dirty Harry Problem

Causal factors affecting the development of corrupt

Chapter two considers how police corruption is to be identified and defined. It

WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?

2. What is police cor ruption?

When an officer receives some form of material gain by virtue

Receipt of goods, services or money for referring business to

Stealing from arrestees (sometimes referred to as rolling),

Acceptance of a bribe for not following through a criminal

Police protection of those engaged in illegal activities

Undermining of criminal investigations or proceedings, or the

Direct criminal activities

Prerogatives available to police officers (holidays, shift

Planting of or adding to evidence (argued by Punch to be

WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?

WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?

necessarily involves an abuse of position what is corrupted is the special trust

Shermans solution to this

WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?

in attempting to define corruption, attention must be paid to the means, the

corruption need not necessarily involve illegal conduct or misconduct on the

WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?

Two methods of considering corruption have been considered here: to categorise

The use of the masculine

As Goldstein (1975:28) notes, as soon as a police manager declares himself 2 to be

WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?

The rest of this section is heavily

The reference to policing her

WHAT IS POLICE CORRUPTION?

Arguments in support of acceptance

Natural and reasonable to show appreciation to those

Gratuities are not significant enough to buy or cultivate

When offered officially by a company or corporation (e.g. the

Links with the

Part and parcel of fostering close links with the community,

An entrenched part of police culture. Any attempt to end it

Trust and discretion

Attempts to prohibit acceptance imply that officers cannot be