Police Misconduct

The police work is quite distinct from the others because of the requirements of their tasks which demands 24 hour availability and contact with the public {Hurtado, 2002}. They are called at any time even for tasks that are best performed by other agencies. They also have the authority to use force, to arrest people and to conduct investigation on suspects or at criminal scenes. They also have the discretion to explore alternative action plans suitable to handle particular situations that they are presented with.

The authority is hinged upon certain determinants for the police officer’s discretionary action. The seriousness of the crime and the strength of the evidence will make a police officer to arrest a criminal or not. A criminals’ appearance in the judgment of the officer and the mannerisms in terms of defensiveness and disrespect to the officer may earn a criminal a forceful arrest (Hurtado, 32-9).

This incorporates bureaucratic misbehavior of an officer in the observance of the regulations of the police department, or violates the state constitutional laws or the civil rights of citizens. They can be explained in the form of excessive use of physical deadly force, unfair administrative of law, physical and verbal harassment, discriminatory arrest among others. (Hurtado, 213-34).

Police corruption is the misuse of police powers for personal gain. These may be in the form of bribery, extortion, and illegal businesses of selling drugs, safe keeping of stolen goods. The law has provisions that stipulate the punitive measures that are applicable for police misconduct. Furthermore, the police departments have disciplinary procedures that allow the senior officers to investigate and punish the guilty officers, basic training for new recruits, and review boards that operate in liaison with the public to air complaints and suggest remedial and evaluative advice (Shimshon, 114-45). There are also sections that allow the victims of police misconduct to sue the police for damages caused to them. Most of the crimes have included excessive use of force, undeserved arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, wrongful murder. The federal law is applicable to police of all departments as well as those in correctional facilities (Hurtado, 116-32).

The possibility of the law to be implemented to deal with the misconduct in the police department seems to be untenable by the police officers as they have been entrusted to enforce the law (Hurtado, 125-45). The practice of entrusting the community to keep the accountability of the government to regulate the conduct of the police officers has succeeded in South Africa. Like all the government departments that give annual reports to the Public Service Commission. The reports that affect the operations of the police have not always indicated the actual aspects that cover the misconduct of the police especially the use of force

These aspects were underreported since the agencies involved had no legal obligation to do so. The inability of the departments to give the accurate data does not give transparent reports on use of lethal, nonlethal force, torture instances, civilian complaints, police corruption and death in police custody.

In America, despite the strategies and well intentioned changes police have still hit the news in the cities and reports have indicated that little evidences have been found to support corruption cases. Police drug corruptions have characterized cities that are within the influence of New York and this have been witnessed in scandal and serious losses in the police departments. There have been little efforts in America that are targeted towards dealing with police crimes (Hurtado, 217-23).

In countries like Kenya, there is a concept that has been adopted by the government in collaboration with the community to take part in protecting the rights of citizens and regulating the conduct of the police department (Hurtado, 117-9).

The concept of Community Based Policing has acted well in facilitating this cooperation. This has been used to imply the partnership of the police with the community, to participate in its own policing and mobilize resources to solve the problems affecting the public security over a longer time than just the police actions that solve short term problems.

The concept models a method of policing that adopts consent instead of coercion, finding the needs of the community and working with the existing organizations to design policing programmes to providing quality services and giving room for accountability. They also recognize that the police must be part of the community apart from it (Hurtado, 56-62).

The principles that underlie the community policing have their basis on democracy. The police are required to embrace professionalism in their conduct of activities. The police should be sensitive to the human dignity when executing their activities and avoid discrimination in the process. The protection of life as well as accountability to the public that the police serve is mandatory should also form a priority of the police (Hurtado, 12- 21).

The Community based policing should be carried out in the form of partnerships that involves consultation from the relevant agencies to establish community needs and priority policies to promote accountability, transparency and effectiveness through training (Shimshon, 111-43). The procedure should take advantage of partnerships to solicit resources and skills in the community to benefit the stakeholders and the crime reduction (Anderson, 134-56).

The major stakeholders in community policing should include National Police, Municipalities, Government departments like social, justice, security health, environment and education, local community structures, civil societies, business community, media, religious organizations and drug enforcement agencies (Shimshon, 67-83).

This is one of the most effective ways of policing the police. It is required that the cooperation be backed by legal procedures that help to protect the public as well as the police from vulnerability and exploitation. This is one way that makes both the police and the public responsible for the crimes that they commit and the provision of security and enhancement of safety in a county.