Police Corruption in the U.S.

[RawrInc]

Well to start off I am a criminal justice student. I've had to write several papers. I tried to find some statistics for this topic with no avail. I want to know what the public feels on the topic.

Tried the BJS, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NIBRS, national incident based reporting system, UCR, uniform crime report. Also tried National Crime Victimization Survey, NCVS

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/NCVS/ - National Crime Victimization Survey
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/ -Bureau of Justice Statistics
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr - Uniform Crime Report
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/NIBRS/ - Nation Incident Based Reporting Service

(will be editing in statistics from a credible source once a bit more research is done)

Please no main stream media.

How prevalent do you feel police corruption is?

[Patashu]

No links on me, but every now and again I hear a story about cops using a tazer unnecessarily (e.g. for old people who aren't resisting), and then they do an internal investigation and, surprise surprise, find no wrongdoing.

[Raj..]

I'm not saying all cops are like this but a good handful of them let the power go to they're own heads, in other words, they just don't have the mental capacity to handle the good amount of power they are granted.

Now because of these select group of terrible cops, people think that every cop is a terrible cop who likes to harass people and do back door deals with the mafia, when in all actuality its the opposite.

People see cops driving or motorcycling or biking and they're initial reaction is "Oh fuc the cops, I bet he's going to stop me because all cops are bitchs."

Dude Ima go play Final Fantasy.

[RawrInc]

Originally Posted by Patashu

No links on me, but every now and again I hear a story about cops using a tazer unnecessarily (e.g. for old people who aren't resisting), and then they do an internal investigation and, surprise surprise, find no wrongdoing.

Yeah but that's mostly main stream media. They are reporters, not cops. For the most part not reliable information.

and also did more research no such statistics exist. Official statistics at least. There are various reports.

[Patashu]

I see what you mean, but how would you conduct a statistical study of police corruption, in the absence of police stations or other organizations faithfully cataloguing every abuse? you'd either have to be everywhere every time and objectively notice every instance of police corruption (not going to happen for various resource consuming and privacy reasons) or query people about it, who after the fact could under or over exaggerate.

[Vendetta21]

Except for the fact that police misconduct is ****ing brutal and essentially police can be considered the largest street gang in America.

misconduct statistics
http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/

largest street gang in america
http://videosift.com/video/The-Large...ang-in-America

the most valuable video you will ever see linked in CT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fZQWjDVKE

OH YEAH THIS GUY
http://www.arpaio.com/

anyways i'm glad to have cleared up our glaring misconceptions about police

[Vendetta21]

Here this image is pretty helpful for those who don't click links and read them (most people):

[Oni-Paranoia]

I'm going to admit that there is some stories of unnecessary brutality, but we also need to keep in mind that these guys are trained to expect the worst possible scenarios. So if you touch your pocket and you get tazered, its sheer paranoia.

I blame the way they're taught. Not necessarily the cop(s).

[Vendetta21]

you don't think there's any sort of correlation between the type of person who wants to be a cop and the type of problems that upstanding citizens can experience from cops?

[MrGiggles]

Having just finished The Wire I'm inclined to look favorably on V's evidence.

Those youtube links are godly, by the way. They're all good, but I liked that one especially.

[Rubin0]

I'm going into forensic psychology. While I haven't reached the level where I have studies the law extensively, I have been studying psychology for five years. Those cops/all cops are human beings. The general public expect people in power to be these all knowing all seeing beings. The truth is, human beings are flawed. Human beings, when given the chance, will go to great lengths to benefit themselves and to protect themselves. If a cop ****s up and he has the opportunity to cover it up, he will most likely try regardless of the consequences. This does not make him a bad person, it's self preservation. If a police chief has let some really bad **** under his watch happen, he will not want these mistakes to leak. It makes him look bad. Solution? Use the power you have been given to save yourself.

Just a general example, these cops deal with unruly uncooperative people on a day to day basis with little to no gratitude from the general public. Instead, people avoid looking at them, lie to their faces, and given the chance many of them would try to hurt a cop to get away. If you were trying to protect people that hate you wouldn't you get angry every once in a while? Say you are arresting a guy that was caught mollesting a child. Wouldn't you want to beat the **** out of him? No, you stay cool and do your job. But all the build up you might take out on the next guy that did something minute comapared to the pedo. Everyone snaps. Cops especially. That's why cop burn out is so common. It drains your soul and it desensitizes you.

Is it right? NO. In an ideal world would this happen? NO. Am I defending them? Absolutely not, but it's important to understand why these things happen and it's not always because they are horrible bad men.

[MrRubix]

Most cops I know aren't the kinds of people you'd want to be cops in control of guns and strength.

Just the other day, here in Times Square, I saw one officer yelling at another one, spouting "What, you wanna fight?! You wanna fight me!?" while getting up in his face. Jeeeeesus. You guys are supposed to be on the same team, here.

Recently over at Yale, too, there was an unnecessary tasering at a party that wound up rendering a guy unconscious. Instead of calling the EMTs, they pretty much left him there and went around yelling "Who's next?!"

Ungh.