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Police misconduct is a vital concern as it affects the functioning of society and might cause much harm to individuals. For this reason, much attention is devoted to the investigation of the given issue. For instance, the Knapp Commission Report on Police Corruption outlines so-called grass eaters and meat-eaters. The first group includes officers who accept gratuities from individuals for their job, which is a common practice in most departments. The second group presupposes that officers look for an opportunity to earn money by using their power (Chanin & Sheats, 2018). These concepts correlate with the ideas of bad apples and police culture. The bad apple analogy assumes that the existence of several corrupted policemen can deteriorate the image of the whole institution and destroy it (Dunham et al., 2009). For this reason, the presence of both meat or grass eaters is dangerous for further evolution. As for the police culture concept, it means the existence of some rules between officers that regulate their functioning and make them engage in various activities, including misconduct. Such codes of behavior are dangerous for the whole institution.
Moreover, the Solidarity and the Code of Silence can make the investigation of police misconduct more complicated and sophisticated. Following the code, police offers might prefer to avoid speaking about recent cases and cover their colleagues (Chanin & Sheats, 2018). For this reason, any investigation should be performed outside the police department with the involvement of citizens to attain objectivity of findings and better results.
The misuse of force is a dangerous precedent that might precondition the growth of social dissatisfaction and resistance to the police. Being a social institution with the authority to use weapons and force in various situations, the police should be careful of applying severe measures to cases that might be resolved by using other methods (Dunham et al., 2009). Otherwise, the misuse of force will create the basis for the emergence of public movements and civil resistance, an outburst of violence and uncontrolled aggression dangerous for law-obedient citizens and their property (Moule et al., 2019). For this reason, the policy should control the use of force in different situations.
The extensive police militarization might have a negative influence on the institution and precondition the emergence of the so-called dispersion effect. It means that the implementation of military tactics and weapons can result in their fast spread and normalization. For instance, the PM can result in the use of weapons against participants of a civil protest to avoid the deterioration of the situation. Additionally, the dispersion effect can be observed in using military tactics when resolving racial tensions and conflicts (Moule et al., 2019). These cases can be viewed as the consequences of PM and should be given specific attention because of their negative impact on the police and society.
References
Chanin, J. M. (2015). Examining the sustainability of pattern or practice police misconduct reform. Police Quarterly, 18(2), 163192. Web.
Chanin, J., & Sheats, B. (2018). Depolicing as dissent shirking: Examining the effects of pattern or practice misconduct reform on police behavior. Criminal Justice Review, 43(2), 105126. Web.
Douglass, D. L. (2017). Department of Justice consent decrees as the foundation for community-initiated collaborative police reform. Police Quarterly, 20(3), 322336. Web.
Dunham, R., Alpert, G., & McLean, K. (2009). Critical issues in policing (6th ed.). Waveland Press.
Moule, R. K., Fox, B. H., & Parry, M. M. (2019). The long shadow of Ferguson: Legitimacy, legal cynicism, and public perceptions of police militarization. Crime & Delinquency, 65(2), 151182. Web.
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