Concerns regarding unethical law enforcement are broad, far-reaching, and contentious, given the many forms they take and the motives that drive them. Moore (2020) identifies the most prevalent forms of abuse as intimidation by police officers, abuse of power and office, illegal law enforcement, misconduct by law enforcers, and politicizing the police force. This paper seeks to highlight the various forms of unethical law enforcement and to establish their causes and effects. The paper also addresses the liability of the offenses and ascertains the parties responsible for the outcomes of the misconduct.
Perceived Causes
A considerable section of US residents believes that unethical law enforcement has roots in ethnic bias. A 2019 study by the Pew Research Centre reported that 84% of respondents admitted to having been unfairly treated by the police (Drew et al., 2020). The report continues to state that 87% of whites agree that police are more likely to accuse a black American than a White, while 61% of Whites admitted that they had encountered occasions where the justice system openly favoured them over Blacks. Similarly, slightly over two-thirds of Blacks concurred that they have been in situations where they were people, and police acted in suspicion of them because of their skin colour. Evidently, ethnicity affects the trust between law enforcement personnel and citizens, which leads to the unfair administration of the law.
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Inadequate remuneration and material empowerment also derail the quality of service delivery by officers in the law enforcement sector. Given that monetary factors directly affect officers’ motivation, problems with the wage gap affects not only the officers but also the communities they serve. Walters and Mitchell (2019) report that coincidentally, regions with low tax bases, whose residents already live in poverty, are burdened with police and judicial officers that are relatively more corrupt. The rationale is since the police are underpaid, they tend to extort the communities they serve. By the same token, Redfern (2016) observes a rather disturbing pattern – In remote areas and places with higher poverty rates, most law enforcement organs are underequipped, which negatively impacts service delivery. For instance, Robert Howard, an officer in the police department at Hillsdale, struggles with the $10.5 hourly rates he gets and admits that it has tempted his colleagues to find uncouth revenue streams, including assisting smugglers (Walters and Mitchell, 2016). Tekiner & Aydin (2016) further emphasizes the primary input of motivation and throughput in the police force. It is quite undeniable that, like other professions, law enforcement agencies equally need to empower, motivate, and look into pressing issues with remuneration within the workforce to promote quality service provision.
Nasty Effects
The outcomes of unethical law enforcement, particularly police brutality, are gruesome. Loss of trust between the police and the general public is the most obvious. Loss of confidence triggers an avalanche of other effects, which undermine the ultimate goal of fair law-keeping and justice for offenders. Likewise, Torreblanca & Stewart (2019) report that police brutality fuels casual peer effects, thus spreading the likelihood of further misconduct. They observe a 10% increase in the probability of a peer officer to commit misconduct after witnessing a colleague go Scott free. In extreme cases where the public loses trust in law enforcement organs, citizens take the law in their hands. Blumberg (2018) observes that such scenarios lead to mob justice, increased homicides, and general unrest in the society since people tend to become more irritable, and slight provocations lead to violence. Also, loss of trust in judicial offices promote corruption and manipulation, since justice is only served to those who can afford it. All the effects mentioned here are recursive and can build up rapidly to collapse law enforcement organs.
A sustained failure to stem unethical law enforcement often leads to public protests and rage. Recently, masses of protesters flocked out to US streets to picket against the systemic racism that culminated in the killing of George Floyd on May 26th, 2020. The Floyd case makes the most persuasive argument in demonstrating how disastrous unethical law enforcement could be, given the massive implications the demonstrations against a backdrop of rising cases of the novel coronavirus disease infections. Momentous as they were, George Floyd protest are neither the scariest nor the biggest. In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. arranged a historic march to Washington DC, dubbed the “Montgomery Bus Boycott,” and thereafter gave the “ I Have a Dream ” speech (Roberto, 2020). Law enforcement agencies are used to applying excessive force to quell such protests, which notably intensifies the row. Such occurrence was when Ted Wheeler, the Portland Mayor, joined the George Floyd protest, was teargassed along with other protesters, inciting further tumult (Al Jazeera, 2020). To conclude, public demonstrations are one of the most dreaded results of unethical law enforcement.
Bosses and Unions are to Blame
It goes without a word that police unions are complicit with unethical law enforcement. The problem with police unions is that they have been, for a long time, proved untouchable and immune to the law. For instance, When Bill de Blasio, the Mayor of New York City, expressed his reservations for police commitment to protecting school children from gun shooters, police’s benevolent association reacted spitefully, instigating a drive to ban him out of their members’ funerals (Greenhouse, 2020). Once upon a time, these unions, like any other labour unions, solely served to protect the polices’ workplace affairs, championing remuneration and better working conditions. However, police unions have lately evolved to hide the culprits of misconduct. Greenhouse further unveils a slightly sour relationship between the extension of police contracts and violent misconduct. It discloses a forty percent increase in extreme misconduct associated with the prolongation of Florida’s deputy Sheriffs’ tenures.
Rad (2018) further add that police unions’ discipline apparatuses are ineffectual, citing a case where Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority unveiled twelve instances of severe misconduct sidestepped by the union’s bosses. What is even more woeful is that these unions not only just cover up police officers’ messes, but also confer them with impunity and dare them to go out and misbehave, with the promise of full cover. These revelations of the unions’ latitude being just a tip of the iceberg, there is no reason not to hold them guilty for unethical enforcement of the law.
Furthermore, Dewan & Kovaleski (2020) expose the many ills of police bosses in police brutality, with Derek Chauvin from the Minneapolis Police department in question. Despite Derek having retired without a conviction of violence, his two decades of service saw seventeen complaints of misconduct and a federal recommendation to review his conduct, all of which never bore fruit. Other grievances levelled against him and other bosses in the department were demeaning and derogatory language to the public, critically wounding a man they had a struggle (outside his work hours) with bullets. It was not until Derek was video-taped knee pinning a suspect for close to ten minutes, for which he was accused in court and charged for murder.
Conclusion
To sum up, unethical administration of the law is long entrenched in the police and justice system. Evidently, the institutionalization of police brutality makes it difficult for individuals to obtain justice single-handedly. The paper has expressed the sad realization that the most iconic changes in the law regarding police brutality have only been acquired through protests, as with the case of Martin Luther. It is undeniable that the blame squarely lies with police bosses and unions. The significance of Independent policing authorities in the quest for justice against police brutality has never been apparent as it is at this time.
References
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Dewan, S. and Kovaleski, S. (2020, May 30 th ). “Thousands of Complaints Do Little to Change Police Ways.” The New York Times .
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Greenhouse, S. (2020, June 6 th ). “How Police Unions Enable and Conceal Abuses of Power.” The New Yorker: US Edition.
Mitchell, A., & Walters, H. (May 20, 2020). “Greenville Sheriff's Office facing crisis, needs $5.4 million for deputy pay, shortage”. GreenVille News . Retrieved https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2019/05/20/why-pay-low-sc-police-officers-how-affects-them-wage-increase-greenville-county-sheriff-johnny-mack/3021806002/
Moore, L. (2020, June). “Police brutality in the United States.” Britannica. 12(5).
Quispe-Torreblanca, E. G., & Stewart, N. (2019). Causal Peer Effects in Police Misconduct. Nature Human Behaviour , 3(8), 797-807.
Rad, A. (2018). Police Institutions and Police Abuse: Evidence from the US. Oxford University Press . Available at SSRN 3246419.
Redfern, E. (February 2020). “The Police Officer Salary; Are Police Struggling to Get by?” Cash Float . Retrieved https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/blog/loans-lenders/police-officer-salary/ Accessed July 29, 2020.
Roberto, A. (2020). “Three Lessons We Can Learn from George Floyd’s Case and Its Impact.” HackerNoon . Retrieved https://hackernoon.com/three-lessons-we-can-learn-from-george-floyds-case-and-its-impact-kq443xyw
Tekiner, M. A., & Aydın, R. (2016). Analysis of Relationship Between Favouritism and Officer Motivation: Evidence from Turkish Police Force . Inquiry , 1(2).
