Police Misconduct

Introduction

Misconduct involves the wrongdoing by people such as the policemen when carrying out their usual duties. It may involve partiality, dishonesty, misuse of positions among others. The ways through which the police misconduct is handled in the United States of America has greatly aided the culture of continues unpunished conduct of police against civilians. This essay supports the argument that the police misconduct is indeed alive and causes harm to citizens.

Police officers in any society are entrusted with the important tasks of law enforcement, provision of protection for properties and to maintain civil order amongst the members of the society. In order to fulfill their roles they are entrusted to investigate incidences of law breaking and arrest the culprits. When carry out their duties they are legally allowed to use force to carry out their duties. However the use of force to enforce the laws and maintain order is only approved when officers are faced with situations that can resort in endangerment of public safety or places their lives and those of the members of society in jeopardy. Member of any police force are drawn from their respective societies and are recruited and trained to carry out their duties.

But since the need for policing arises out of the fact that in every society there are those who will deviate from normalcy and break he rules and regulations that govern the society. Similarly in every police department there are officers who break their codes of conduct that are put in place to govern policing. Such officers are normally guilty of police misconduct.

Police misconduct resorts when officers behave inappropriately when carrying out the official duties. This implies that officers, who are guilty of misconduct, take actions that contravene the guiding principles and regulations of policing which makes their actions illegal in the eyes of the law. This can be as a result of using force inappropriately .This means that although the law permits the officers to  use when necessary ,there are situations when officers abuse this legal provision . Police misconduct can also arise when the officers are conducting investigations .There are incidences where the officers have been found to  have either excluding vital evidence or introducing their own evidence resulting in "miscarriage of justice".

The police misconduct can be clearly depicted by the misuse of their officially obtained powers, resources, information and violation of the expected trust by the people at their service to an extent of inviting dismissal. This police misconduct is the most sensitive form and its implications are severe because the police are entitled to serve many people (Casey, J. 2006).

Bearing in mind the levels of professionalism expected from police officers, their behavior is monitored from both away and at their places of work. The police misconduct can be realized in various avenues such as the off duty incidents including the assault on fellow policemen in the social amenities like bars and taking advantage of their opposition to use excessive force when dealing with the citizens. In addition, evidence from recorded scenarios has played a very significant role in unraveling the police indecency whereby innocent victims have been framed for various crimes. These include being framed for drug trafficking or resisting arrest when in real sense the cameras have shown that the police are exercising extra-judicial activities (Barry, P. 2008).

As much as wrongful arrests may be out of genuine mistakes, they are on the increase due to much concentration of the police on making arrests while ignoring other important duties and responsibilities. This is evident from the increasing protests by the public against police misconduct in recent past. The other form of misconduct involves the police using suggestive thinking when implicating a suspect for certain crimes and sometimes employing crude tactics that compel the suspect into confessing against false crimes (Archbold, A. and Hassell, K. 2008). In respect to this, the DNA tests have been instrumental in proving the police wrong and also some cases whereby the emerging truth has led to release of suspects after they have already served some time in detention (Barry, P. 2008).

The police from my point of view have a tendency of getting irritated when a potential suspect affirms a constitutional right at arrest. Regardless of the authenticity of the claim, police are easily annoyed by such moves and can easily frame the suspect for different crimes. The police believe that they have a right to dictate and decide what is right or wrong.

Evidence has also shown that the police remain silent on their colleagues since it is so hard to find a policeman arresting or indicting a fellow officer as seen in daily life. This is a serious misconduct in the police because their fellow colleagues commit serious crimes in the society such as killing thus they deserve equal treatment just as the other ordinary citizens (Walker, S and MacDonald, M. 2008).

Finally, the police misconduct is depicted in their discrimination when discharging their duties. For instance, they employ racial discrimination whereby people from a certain races face the wrath and they are imprisoned as compared to others. This is evident from the available population statistics which shows that the greater percentage of the arrested people is of certain races (Lambe, J. and Bormann, D. 2011).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the police misconduct is alive and causes harm to citizens. The police use their official positions to mishandle the citizens. In order to promote the image of the police which is one of the law enforcement agencies, the appropriate measures to reduce the police misconduct should be taken by the relevant authorities.