Police Corruption

Shakedown : Stealing expensive items for personal use and attributing the loss to criminal activity when investigating a burglary or unlocked door

Perjury : Following the code ' that demands that officers lie to provide an alibi for fellow officers apprehended in unlawful activity

Premeditated theft : Planned burglaries that involve the use of tools or keys to gain entry : any pre arranged act of unlawful acquisition of property that cannot be explained as a spur of the moment ' theft

The problem of corruption in the police department is in part related to the willingness

of certain individuals from the public to offers gifts and bribes which lure cops into corruption . The reason why they do so is obvious . It is not unlikely that these individuals expect something in return for their small gratuities and tips . Although for officers these free stuffs and services may be trivial , for former New York Police Commissioner Patrick V . Murphy , even the smallest tips can forge an expectation of some kind of patronage and favor in return . He argued that aside from the police officer 's paycheck , there is no such thing as a clean buck (Peak , 2000 . Unlike other professions , officers have at their disposal police powers which individuals with vested interest are ready to exploit . This compounds the factors that lure cops into corrupt practices

For Peak , these corrupt practices take two basic forms : internal and external . The external form includes those activities such as tips and payoffs which is the result of police interaction with the public Small tips and gratuities are the most common form of corruption involving police officers . Internal corruption is related to the work and interaction among police officers within the dynamics of the department including payments for promotions and for good job assignments either with better shifts or with better...