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Corruption in Law Enforcement

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Submitted By magicmarker
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Since the first law was written, the law enforcement community has been confronted with a litany of allegations that officers have violated the public's trust by engaging in criminal acts of corruption. Many aspects of policing have changed over time; however, one aspect that has remained relatively unchanged is the existence of corruption. Police corruption is a complex issue and a growing problem in the United States today. Corruption in policing is usually viewed as the misuse of authority by a police officer acting to fulfill personal needs or wants (Martin, 2011). It has seemingly become far too common, that on any given day, a local newspaper will often display an article about a police officer that got caught committing a corrupt act of some sort. Many forms of corruption exist. The activities that constitute illegal corruption can differ depending on the country or jurisdiction, and include but are not limited to: bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, and embezzlement (legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/). Across the United States, Drug-related corruption is a huge problem among law enforcement officials. For many decades, communities have felt the burden of law enforcement officials involved in drug corruption scandals. Drug-related corruption has plagued federal, state and local law enforcement in many ways. Large groups of corrupt police officers have been caught in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, as well as many other cities. (Martin, 2011). When a substance is prohibited by law it creates tremendous, untraceable profits, and when these enormous amounts of money become involved, corruption of officials can be expected. Wherever drugs are present, there is an opportunity for corruption; as a result, no law enforcement official should be above suspicion. It’s not hard to understand how the drug war can create police

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