Police Misconduct

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".