Police Corruption

 In Edwin J. Deltarres' book Character and Cops he explores three hypotheses for police corruption in the United States. Some are somewhat historical, but they are still relevant to the problem of corruption today. The first hypothesis is called "the society at-large" theory by former Chicago Police Superintendent O. W. Wilson. Wilson was superintendent of the Chicago Police Department during the early nineteen sixties. The second hypothesis is called the "structural" theory. The third is called "the rotten apple theory." I will provide a brief analysis of the three hypotheses in this essay and examine which one(s) is valid today.

The society at-large hypothesis theory, asserts that the police, in this case the nineteen sixties Chicago Police Department, was corrupted by outside forces and the police became conditioned to the corruption as business as usual. O. W. Wilson makes the case that the police of Chicago had been accustomed to accepting "grafts" from various parts of society on a regular basis. It was the accepted norm.

Wilson explains that earlier generations of police were poorly paid and the wealthier citizens of the society viewed police similarly to their own servants and would provide them with gifts and gratuities even though the police were public servants and not private servants. Local businesses, restaurants, and hotels would also curry favor with the beat cop expecting better service from him in return by paying the officers. Other times officers were provided with reduced cost/free meals or alcohol. Owen believed that this pattern of behavior would often lead to even worse corruption, "a slippery slope," such as aiding organized crime or street level hoodlums by taking part in, or profiting from robberies or worse crimes. Owens concluded his hypothesis by being a strong advocate for strong policies strictly forbidding any gratuities of any kind.

The second is the "Structural" hypothesis. It is based on indoctrination of newer officers into a corrupt cynical department. It suggests older officers, over time, may become cynical with their jobs and with society in general. This often happens due to the nature of police work itself. The constant barrage of bad people doing bad things over time can affect officers and leave them with a negative, cynical view of their jobs and the greater society.

The newer honest cop is often treated with disdain by cynical senior officers and superiors alike until he succumbs to the prevalent attitudes of the department. Eventually the new officer will conform due to the peer pressure. The newly cynical officer will gain the trust of fellow officers and superiors while being accepted by the corrupt department. Now accepted, the newer officer is at some point exposed to bribes from criminals, or shake downs of local businesses, or possibly even stealing evidence wether it is money or drugs. The new officer who was once eager to be an honest cop, after being exposed to the way it works in his dysfunctional department is conditioned to the status-quo of the corrupt organization. The corruption perpetuates itself from one generation of officer to another.

The last hypothesis is the Rotten-Apple hypothesis. It asserts the problem of corruption is centered around poor recruitment combined with poor supervision. Delattres book, Character and Cops, points out the Miami police department for a case study. What happened in Miami was a rush to expand the department in a short time frame, the city roughly doubled it. Miami did a mass hiring in response to a population explosion. When they did so, they hired officers without regard to standards. Eventually the standards were lowered to the point that officers were hired who were totally illiterate.

Once they were hired, they were trained by inexperienced