corruption of police history

History of Police Corruption

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History of Police Corruption

Introduction

The following examination of the historical trends provides insight into the concurrent development of the police system and police corruption in the United States . The history of police departments in America is rife with examples of corruption and misconduct (Brown United States 1964 . The emergence of the field of criminal justice spawned a wealth of historical and critical reform studies and research efforts aimed at identifying patterns , mechanisms , motives , and structures of the complex

br and evolving nature of police corruption . All serious historical efforts include some mention , if not significant emphasis , on the intertwining history of corrupt practices and fledgling American police systems

The Post Revolutionary Era

In post-revolutionary America , the colonists relied heavily on the mother country for their ideas regarding community involvement with municipal law enforcement (Uchida , 1996 . Social control was the mainstay of law enforcement in the settlements . American insistence on local control of police is at least partly responsible for the absence of a national , repressive police force such as has arisen in other nations . In the mid-1800 's , the policing functions that had previously been performed by private police were transferred to publicly supported police . These police had broad responsibilities : to maintain public , to regulate economic activity , and to provide emergency services At the same time , a professional police force was developing in London England

The London Metropolitan Police recruited men from the countryside to police the inner city and held them to high standards of conduct instilling in them a military bearing through the issuing of uniforms serial numbers and badges (Lee , 1971 . This prompted American police forces to adopt similar policies and procedures as their counterparts across the Atlantic . Weiner (1981 ) traces the history and organization of American law enforcement , which has been dominated by a strong belief in local control of the police . The political involvement , the corruption , the lack of national standards , and the resistance to change that have characterized American policing may all be attributed to the emphasis on local control that was built into the system from its formative years (Weiner , 1981

Reform and Innovation Amidst Vice and Politics

The highly politicized nature of the selection process for police officers , the inherent corruption that fed the system and the expansion of crime and civil unrest in major urban centers in the late 19th Century led to the rise of a national reform effort . As part of city government , police departments were targets of change as well . Law enforcement became highly politicized and big money illegal interests and politicians used the police for their own ends . It was during this time that the Lexow Committee brought the dark side of the New York Police Department into full view . The group 's findings revealed for the first time , institutional corruption involving every member of the police department from the beat cop to the Chief of Police (Weiner 1981

It demonstrated a systematic and pervasive pattern of police...