Examples of Police Corruption Include Everything from Sleeping on the Job

Examples of police corruption include everything from sleeping on the job to inappropriate sex-related behaviors in the course of duty. Officers may also engage in deception as part of their efforts to fight crime. This includes falsifying police reports; circumventing rules meant to protect citizens, like that of search and seizure; and committing perjury during court testimony. Noble cause corruption refers to situations where officers bend the rules to attain the "right" result. Frequently, the rights violation would be justified in the officer's mind by the ultimate good of putting the bad guy in jail where he or she "belongs."
The first step in responding to an accusation of corruption in a police department is to conduct an investigation. The results of the investigation determine any necessary follow-up.
This scenario focuses on the ethical decisions police officers face every day.
At the small-town precinct of Bear Lake, Michigan, 12-year veteran officer Tony Smith has just brought in the primary suspect in a series of area burglaries that occurred over the previous month. The suspect, local petty criminal Jonah Horne, is well known to all members of the department, having been arrested by four separate officers over the last decade. Smith has arrested Horne twice before, though neither case resolution meant more than six months of jail time to the career burglar. You're the chief of police and walk by, noticing that Horne's lip is cut and swollen, and there's a cut over his eye that recently stopped bleeding. His shirt is torn in several places, and his jeans appear as though he'd rolled around in the dirt. He is screaming to anyone within earshot that Smith beat him up "for no good reason" and he wants to file a police brutality report.
Smith responds by saying, "You confessed and now you want to recant? Get over it, sleazebag, you're busted!"
-What is the first step in responding to an accusation of corruption?

A) an investigation
B) criminal charges
C) civil charges
D) termination

Correct Answer:

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