Police corruption is a major issue these days in policing. When it comes to corruption in the news the most prevalent type seems to be more about money. Trafficking of firearms and selling contraband. They also do private details to escort illegal goods for criminals. My article is about a retired NYPD officer named William Masso. Masso had eight other retired and active duty officers. They were trafficking contraband, firearms with defaced serial numbers and a bunch of stolen goods. They did this with the help of a FBI informant going interstate and across state lines to do these dastardly deeds. All of this began back in 2009 and span all the way to late 2011. In all Masso and his merry band of crooked cops illegally transported over a million dollars street value of assumed to be stolen goods. They used their badges and police jackets to make sure things went smoothly. They were told on high priority transports to say they were performing an off duty escort for purchased auction goods.

The crime theory that best fits my article is the Radical conflict theory. The reason that I say that is because these officers were economically inadequate. So they thought that they could make some extra money on the side fast and get away with it. Some would even argue the free will theory because they had a choice and exercised their free will to go against the oath they took. This is a definitely a meat-eater situation. Masso and his crew did this over a 2 year period. If they didn’t get caught they would still be out there doing so.

The impact on the department will be very rough. That is spreading doubt and ill feelings towards people that are supposed to be able to trust each other. The department has to try and reassure the other officers that you can trust your fellow officers. The community is going to be outraged by the officers’ actions and they are not going to be able to trust officers for a long time. On top of scrutinizing every officer they come in contact with. The corrupt officers should be disciplined in the right fashion. To me that is firing and jail time for every offense that they committed. Then there is the whole tainted cases scenario with possible overturned cases and free walking criminals.

When it comes to being corrupt depending how you look at it there can be a thing of being a “little” corrupt. When it comes to the whole grass and meat-eaters concept a little corrupt is a possibility. Receiving a free coffee by the book is being corrupt. Now compared to what William Masso and his crew did it is nothing. Officer discretion is a huge role in police corruption. The choice to put yourself in that kind of situation is part of your discretion. Officer discretion is just as much as morals to do the right thing. Integrity is what officers pride themselves on and to compromise that is ridiculous.

The final outcome for the corrupt officers in my article has yet to be fully determined. They are set to be sentenced on June 15th 2012 at 11:00am. Masso plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport firearms interstate, one count of conspiracy to transport defaced firearms, one count of conspiracy to sell firearms to an out-of-state resident, as well as conspiracy to transport and receive stolen merchandise. Massos crew received the same plea as well. Speaking as if I was the chief of police in this kind of situation I would have to cut it off at the beginning. I would have to implement some sort of harsh and unruly kind of punishment to make fellow officers control their actions. This would be my stepping stone to my rule with an iron fist plan.

The research article touches all types of police corruption. The corruption ranges all the way from a simple assault to bribe and illegal distribution of contraband. The researchers were really trying to see if any officer would report their fellow officers. They also tried to figure out the mind set of officers when it came down to the severity of the corruption incidents. The researchers used a survey to collect information. They polled about 30-40 officers from different states and departments. The conclusion of the research was that almost all of the officers did not or would not report a fellow officer for a grass-eating incident. They felt that those incidents are not really corruption. The conclusion of this article does apply to all officers. Officers need to know and understand the severity of their actions. They need theses stats to help them improve on their integrity and to help with decreasing corruption.

In the end this info will help me work and focus on the integrity aspect of the career field that I am entering. A few questions that I have for the researchers are: how can you stop corruption from occurring? What about the cases that have been affected? Has corruption affected the turnout of civilians wanting to become officers? This assignment really opened my eyes to the do’s and the do not’s of an officers as far as corruption. The simplest thing as taking a free coffee and donut is considered being corrupt according to the book. There is a very thin line that I do not want to cross.