Ethics of Police Culture and the Influence on Police Brutality

Introduction 

Police brutality delineates the abuse of authority characterised by unwarranted infliction and deployment of excessive force by personnel bestowed with the responsibility of law enforcement during their course of official duty execution. As Jennings (2018) explains, it also enshrines verbal assault and psychological intimidation. Credible scholarly research postulates that lately, police malfeasance has proliferated in various parts across the United States. The acts constitute grievous form of felony perpetrated by police officers who are hired to curb crime and maintain law and order. Such police misconducts inflict adverse effects to not only the casualties but also hurts the public perception. 

Minimization of police brutality requires breaking of the blue code of silence and adherence of ethics and integrity conduct. Recently, myriad fatalities affecting African Americans have been attributed to police brutality. According to Alang, McAlpine, McCreedy, and Hardeman (2017), in recent years for example, cases of white police officers killing unarmed black adults and youth has sparked riots across the United States. As such, once of the causal factors attributed to rise of police brutality is racism. Statistics report that one in about 1000 black men and boys in the USA die following excessive use of force by police. Excessive use of police force is a widespread issue in the United States ( Alang et al., 2017) . Poor training, corruption and racial bias might explain the impact of police brutality. Also, lack of enforcing of ethics and integrity policy may be a contributory factor in police misconduct. 

Impacts of excessive police force 

Poor Training 

Poor training negatively impacts on the police force ultimately yielding adverse outcomes such as police brutality. Worden (2015) asserts that lack of efficient training derived from absence of defensive tactics and well-designed training curriculum amounts to excessive use of force. Poor training increases police reliance of their tools such as tasers, firearms, pepper spray and batons, rather than tactfully depending on hands-on-defensive techniques. Lack of training on deployment of hand-on-skills instils fear of physically interacting with suspects. The end result is exemplified by drastic proliferation of excessive use of force hence police brutality (Jennings, 2018). The void created by ineffective training denies the police knowledge to employ secondary options in the event the primary strategies such as use of Taser fails. Officer Michael Slager ranks as a victim of poor training. Slager deployed his gun and shot Scot after noting that his use of a Taser did not work. 

Had officer Slager been effectively training, he would have opted to using a secondary option rather than shooting Scott dead. For instance, Slager should have pursued the fugitive on foot and make use of a hands-on strategy instead of firing a shot that killed Scott. Shooting Scott on his back is a blatant indication of lack of efficacious training on approaches to handle a victim who fails to respond to a Taser. Jennings (2018) avers that police training academies fail to emphasize on the basic knowledge on hate crimes training coupled with cultural sensitivity training. Credible evidence, avers that police officers receive superficial training on how laws work or approaches to deploy when responding to a hate crime. The widespread lack of training lead to physical use of force epitomised by baton strikes, throws, chokeholds, and fist strikes. 

Racial Bias 

Prejudice and implicit biasness against black people by white police officers has negatively impacted the US police force often being attributed to police brutality incidences. Evidence of racial disparities amount to infliction of excessive force to victims for instance during traffic stops and drug related seizures ( Alang et al., 2017). Explicit prejudice occurs when white police officers employ us-versus-them’ perception towards back populations. Scholarly research stipulate that some white police officers harbour implicit biases characterised by stereotypes and attitudes that influence their actions, decisions and beliefs towards the black community. Police officers were found to demonstrate a type of implicit bias by perpetuating an unconscious association between the black race and crime. As an impact, white police officers shoot armed individuals more swiftly if they are black targets than if they are white ( Alang et al., 2017). Evidence points to the findings that police refrain from shooting in instances where the target is white. The end result is usually brightened police brutality against the black communities. 

Corruption 

In the police force, corruption ranges from petty and small bribery acts to political and infiltration corruption. Police officers in the US have been accused of perpetrating excessive use of force in attempt to solicit bribes. A growing body of research report that police embark on using verbal abuse and physical infliction of force in instances where a person caught in a wrong doing declines to give handouts or attempts to report the police for perpetration of corrupt practices (Jennings, 2018). The police corruption yields mistrust consequently amounting to an increase in excessive use of force. Corruption further compromises and undermines the police institutional integrity and code of conduct. 

Analysis: Influences 

Potential Causes 

Failure to operationalize code of ethics and integrity creates a loophole that paves way for police excessive use of force. Recent empirical research avers that police brutality towards masses results from unethical decisions by law enforcement offices. Police fail to stick to ethical and integrity oath to serve and protect and instead resorts to using force such as shooting to restore law and order. Fridkin et al., (2017) explain that continued engagement in wrong unethical decisions paves way for incidences of police brutality. Recent cases in Baltimore, characterised by increased reliance of armored vehicles and heavy weaponry is a typical unethical move that compromises the police force integrity. 

The police force fails to enforce ethical and integrity code that binds police officers by spelling punitive measures against errant officers. The inaction creates a perception among officers that employment of excessive force to tame crime and maintain law and order is accepted and lawful. Rather than punishing defiant officers through suspensions or termination, police administration condones unethical acts marred by employment of heavy handed responses when restraining individuals and crowds (Jennings, 2018). Police brutality thus exudes owing to failure to adhere to ethical and integrity during tense moments. 

Residual Impacts 

Some of the impacts that stands to remain even after operationalization of mitigation measures include damaged mental health among black community. Incidences of depression and stress following overwhelming police brutality will leave irreversible mental damages even to populations that have no direct connection to families that have suffered loss from excessive application of force by police ( Fridkin et al., 2017). Both physical and psychological impacts will remain, coupled with the shame and fear of living with injuries inflicted. The abuse either physical or psychological will leave life time impacts manifested by physical wounds and damages. Residual psychological implications include post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal tendencies, frequent panic attacks and possible indulging in substance abuse. 

Pros and Cons 

Notably, excessive use of force by police aids in prevention of damage to other people and surroundings. A perfect illustration is the employment of force by police to restrain a man believed to harbour a motive to break in a residential home. Failure to refrain the individual would have resulted in loss of property due to theft or infliction of injury by the errant criminal. Application of excessive force safeguards police from dangerous situations when on duty. Incidences of assault towards police have been reported (Worden, 2015). The approach by police officers protects them from life threatening circumstances and uncooperative citizens. Regarding cons related to excessive use of force, brutality results in loss of trust with the police force, bad publicity, staff shortages owing to officers leaving employment, lawsuits and subjection of police officers as targets of retaliations. 

Recommendation: Some strategies of curtailing police misconduct. 

Cultural Awareness 

Sensitization on diversity stands to create a deeper understanding among police officers on improving community relationships with the black population. Awareness through training would address implicit bias and provide a fresh view of culture on the need to exhibit professionalism with each community member whether back or white ( Alang et al., 2017). Cultural awareness on topics such as equity, inclusion, bias and diversity would inculcate skills necessary to deal with everyone the same way whether conducting arrest, detention or during a consensual encounter. According to Fridkin, Wintersieck, Courey and Thompson (2017), Officers thus would be in a position to understand different expectations, adapt appropriate restraint approaches and predict cultural derived behaviour hence combating police brutality. Awareness would further equip officer with elementary understanding of culture and cultural competencies particularly in conflict management. 

Extreme Termination 

Deterrence to engage in excessive use of force can be curbed by implementing disciplinary sanctions such as extreme termination of employment. Police leaders ought to terminate violent officers to sound a warning to officers who may intend to use excessive force against citizens. Termination should be for good without an opportunity to appeal or reinstatement. 

Retraining 

Police officers ought to undergo a rigorous re-training program on defensive tactics and use of hands-on mechanisms to restrain defiant crowds and individuals. Training emphasis should focus on hand to hand fighting techniques. The policy should also major on rebuilding community relationships. The program should be extended to encompass job related stress, family problems and building cordial human relations. Retraining should further equip police officers with abilities to make decisions under highly charged conditions and psychological techniques that pertains to situational control ( Fridkin et al., 2017) . The curriculum ought to further cover defusing methods, anger management and response to fear stimulated by confrontations. 

Conclusion 

Unwarranted application of excessive force has been on the rise in the USA. Police brutality to civilians range from murder, mayhem, assault and battery as well as torture. The vice is believed to stem from racial bias, corruption and poor training. Additional factors include the rot characterised by failure to enforce ethics and integrity policy. The above research has isolated residual impacts resulting from police brutality including mental health damages and fear, stigma. Cultural awareness, extreme termination and re-training would play a critical role in combating police brutality. 

References 

Alang, S., McAlpine, D., McCreedy, E., & Hardeman, R. (2017). Police brutality and black health: setting the agenda for public health scholars.  American journal of public health ,  107 (5), 662-665. 

Jennings, J. (2018). Police Brutality, Riots, and Public Opinion: Then versus Now. 

Fridkin, K., Wintersieck, A., Courey, J., & Thompson, J. (2017). Race and police brutality: The importance of media framing.  International Journal of Communication ,  11 , 21. 

Worden, R. E. (2015). The ‘causes’ of police brutality: theory and evidence on police use of force.  ER Maguire, & DE Duffee, Criminal Justice Theory: Explaining the Nature and Behavior of Criminal Justice ,  2 , 149-204.