It is extremely important to be concerned about how law enforcement employees behave ethically. However, the police subculture still upholds the code of silence despite the academic program of study for prospective police officers placing a greater emphasis on excellent coaching. Some important problems that still exist in the majority of police organizations are continually being covered up by the code of ethics. Compared to the total police force, there are fewer law enforcement personnel who violate ethical standards, but when laws are broken, they carry a heavy burden. Examples of these violations include, but are not limited to excessive use of force, sexual harassment and questionable apprehending of suspects. The code of silence has therefore led to the protection of the police from more inspection apart from what may have existed. This paper analyzes the details the police subculture and the code of silence in law enforcement.
Tribal Values Of a new Officer
Police subculture can be taken to mean a given set of behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs displayed by law enforcers. The police tend to view members of the public as untrustworthy and potentially hostile because they take a good portion of their time dealing with law breakers. Therefore, they depend on fellow officers for teamwork support and unity creating a notion of them (the public) and us (the police), (Loyens, 2009).
New officers get into the police profession with entirely different value systems and background. But because the police work involves law enforcement the authority system is safely assumed to be stronger in them, though they get consumed by the tribal value system as soon as they get into the police profession. The system is characterized by phrases such as the “blue code of silence” the "police family" and the "brotherhood." They develop bonds so high for loyalty to ensure they will avail themselves for each other. The police family must stay together, and the brotherhood has to be dependable in death and life situations (Bacon, 2014).
So when the police find themselves in trouble, they call upon their colleagues for cover ups. They explain to their fellows why they did whatever they did. The Brotherhood is forced to rationalize the bad behavior whether they condone it or not. They end up saying that the decision by their colleague to act the way they did was due to pressure and stress. They stand with their fellow brothers whether covering things at home or smoothing them in court; the rules are simple; denying all accusations, speaking as little as possible, avoiding giving details, not answering what one haven’t been asked.(Loyens, 2009).
All this is done to ensure the cover for their fellows by remaining silent. The new entrants are supposed to learn the tribal values and abide by them. The three fundamental traits of tribal values are one; they concentrate on an identifiable group. Enrollment in the group provides security and emotional support. Two, the associates are expected to observe a given culture by which they get an emotional identity. Three, the tribe must have a foe. An enemy ensures that motivation is high. New officers are always in a dilemma whether to keep up with the beliefs and values they learned at the academy in upholding power, authority, and status of the job or join the tribal beliefs. Often, the new recruits are engulfed in the tribal beliefs and are heavily brainwashed by the unethical conduct of the senior police officers within the police force.
Identifiable group
Police officers are a recognizable group. They have certain characteristics that are easily identified. For instance, they always have budged uniforms and guns. People tend to react and treat them differently because they strongly identify with a recognizable group. The public often views the police force as people with authority who they have to fear and respect.
Culture
An identifiable group possesses behavior patterns that can easily be identified, making newcomers to know how strong beliefs can be in shaping their behavior. If an officer seems not to blend in the system, pressure will be mounted on them to ostracize and even conform if he doesn't. The pressure to conform is emotionally intense because law enforcers find security and emotional identity in being who they are (Loftus, 2010).
Common Enemy
To work and live in a concert, every tribe must have a common foe. The members form a “them versus us" attitude. Their very survival according to their feelings is at stake-strong motivation. The reason why members submit to demands of the behavior of the tribe is the fear, thus, changing their beliefs and ethics so that they can be allowed to become part of the tribe. With the “them vs. us” attitude the police find themselves having more enemies than just the criminals. City administrators, police officials, the general public and the media are enemies for most law enforcers even more than criminals. More threats are posed to them on a daily basis from these sources more than from criminals. Additionally, the media, the administrators, and citizens prevent officers from perceiving criminals as foes; criminals are just ordinary people like any other who are fully covered by the laws and the Constitution of the land. Police are supposed to treat the criminals as friends or fellow citizens who have just made a mistake.
Police corruption
Police corruption and misconduct are an abuse of police authority. At times the terms are used interchangeably .Police corruption and misconduct refer to a wide range of civil, criminal and procedural violations (Kingshott, 2004). Police corruption relates to the violation and abuse of police authority for personal benefits. It may involve material benefit or monetary payment. The benefit is illegally acquired through the power or position that a given officer occupies. Typical examples of corruption include; extortion, bribery, fencing or receiving stolen goods and drug smuggling. Police corruption can also be taken to mean the forms of misconduct within a given police unit or department specifically in areas where criminal activities are repeated with the concurrence of the authorities or through a failure that is ongoing to correct them.
Such misconducts may also include police discretion and discrimination. The definition of police discretion can be taken as the power of making decisions afforded to the law enforcers allowing them to decide whether to follow the procedures required by their profession or to release someone by warning them simply. Policing is a rule-based and structured institution. The establishment is shaped by guidelines, procedures, regulations and duties for professional and behavioral conduct. The police also display a public image of formality and rule compliance. This requires them to abide by a given code of conduct strictly. However, moralists may argue that police discretion does not have to be practiced in a free society. There is a principled backup for a reasonable criticism on the use of police discretion even though this may appear extreme.
Police discretion leads to indiscrimination when used excessively. Because of this, there is an unequal enforcement of law. The requirements of the law are that the same propensity of authority is applied equally to everyone citizen irrespective of circumstances (Rowe, 2007). However, the police may misuse this power and start to make unfair judgments when it comes to law enforcement. This makes discretionary powers a shelter under which practices that are abusive are covered. Making decisions under discretionary powers involve the use of individual judgment to act as opposed to the application of rules that are mechanically predetermined making it subjective to unfair and undemocratic uses. Additionally, the decisions result in practices that are discriminatory, exclusively or partially based on arbitrary traits of the subjects. Examples of the features include but are not limited to; ethnicity, religious beliefs, sex, socio- economic status age and race. Consequently, discretionary powers may be directed towards the dispossessed and powerless, the illiterate, the poor, the residents living in deprived neighborhoods who happen to be ethnically minor (Rowe, 2007). The judgment of an officer developed from biasness that is discriminatory is not just deplorable regarding morals but is in direct breach of the law.
There are law safeguards that push against police misconducts and corruption. Codes of conducts are established in the various police departments. Errant officers are disciplined, and new recruits are trained in the departments to abide by the required law. The authorities may sometimes deal with civilian review boards seeking remedial and independent evaluative advice. The state law also contains protections which allow the victims to sue any errant police in civil actions for damages. These legal actions brought against the police are filed as imprisonment and false arrest, police brutality, wrongful death and malicious prosecution (Rowe, 2007).
The public image of the police is influenced by the media and individual perceptions of the civilians. Personal encounters pose the strongest impact on police perception. Several police images are presented to the public by the police themselves. They have frequently employed symbols of power to promote their portrait of capacity and authority for crime control to keep up their legitimacy as agents for social control (Manning, 1977). However, the presentation of their work has dominantly shifted from a "professional" picture to a picture that is more of “community-oriented” in the past three decades. As the former picture displays them as law enforcement experts that are competently neutral, the latter displays them as partners who are responsive to the primary public concern being the quality of life. In spite of these general dominant images shifting from the reality of police function and role in some way, and may impact the expectations of the public about the kinds of services they expect from them. Opinions on the police are formed by an individual’s experience and interaction with them or those obtained from friends and family. The focus is mainly on how the police treat them.
The account of police misconduct by the media influences their public image to some extent. The frequent exposure to police abuse in the press reports predicts the public perception of the police. This negative image created on them creates a negative perception on the side of the public concerning the law enforcers’ conduct. When often the negative image of the police is publicized the general public will take them to be what they perceive them about media reports causing public outrage. However, if the press portrays the police as positive, the public will equally take them to be so (Manning, 1977).
Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing is the act of exposing the police conduct by fellow police officers. Within the environment of law enforcement members of the police subculture face uncertain and dangerous circumstances that may require harsh scrutiny upon them. However, the notion of loyalty, solidarity and the police brotherhood make them tightly knit together to guarantee each other protection. Law enforcers are trained to work in an environment that acknowledges breaking of the law, and through police discretion, whistleblowing in such situations is needed. Their training precisely shapes them to behave ethically and to expose violations that require legal action. But the blue wall of silence makes the breaching of the law among the police to soar to greater heights simply because most officers do not want to be involved and mainly because they don't want to breach the principles of the subculture. This makes most cops unable to come forward and report most activities that violate the law in the police profession. Whistleblowers are always the subject of so much controversy. Therefore, programs to protect them must be put in action. For instance, the FBI has put in action statutes in the federal law to protect them from retribution. Codes of ethics have been documented to stress the need for reporting and challenging misconducts in the police profession. The recorded law goes ahead to offer protection to whistleblowers and to ensure that the mechanism of filing the complaint is not abused. This encourages the uncovering of malpractices and misuse of power in the police department. The code of silence can put law enforcers in many dilemmas concerning ethical concerns. This, if not acted upon, may escalate into massive problems cutting across many officers thus making the subculture ideology becoming more popular. Those who believe in the subculture ideology and the Code of Silence end up jeopardizing the whole profession of enforcing the law. With supervisory leaderships, civilian oversight and community policing followed by serious ethical training to the new personnel, the ideology of the code of silence can be broken and dealt with (Ortmeiter & Meese, 2010).
Exposing the code
The new recruits get exposed to the code of silence in the police subculture. Those that follow the principles of the subculture and the code of silence believe in cover-ups and protection of one another in the face of misconduct. They do not whistle blow any misconducts in the departments because of fear of retaliation and due to their allegiance to the brotherhood system (Marenin, 2004).
During the police hiring process, most agencies conduct the psychological screening because it is a way of selecting recruits who are less likely to entertain misconduct. Those who pass the screening are believed to be in a better position to expose the blue code of conduct and reject being influenced in the police subculture. The psychological examinations are based on the test like background checks, polygraph exams, psychological evaluations, and additional background checks. The recruits are subjected to basic training which emphasizes ethical behavior in the unit.
The Knapp Commission was formed in April 1970 and was led by Judge Whitman Knap; the commission was mainly established to investigate police corruption among New York police department based on public allegations of the heightened cases of the vice. The commission was a five-member panel formed by Mayor John Lindsay. Upon investigations, the committee confirmed the existence of corruption in the law enforcement sector and proposed recommendation as putting commanders on hold to account for the actions of their subordinates, improving the selection methods and screening standards, placing in all precincts the undercover informants, changing the attitude of the police, all commanders to file periodical reports about issues of corruption and creating at all precincts, the office of the division of internal affairs.
Conclusion
In the enforcement of law, the notion of police subculture is not a new thing. The subculture determines the behavior and attitude of the police and the members have common beliefs, views, and values. They see the general public as enemies and always depend on one another for support. In place of professional code of conduct, a section of the law enforcers practice a personal ethical code that emphasizes loyalty to their colleagues other than the general public, this questions the manner by which law is enforced in the society (Meese & Ortmeier 2009).
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