Hodges.Jessica_ResearchPaper (crm 419)

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1 Misconduct and Integrity Testing of Law Enforcement Officers Jessica Hodges Saint Leo University 12/5/2023

2 Misconduct and Integrity Testing of Law Enforcement Officers Abstract Police officers are to help the communities that they oversee sometimes it can be just doing a good deed or helping catch a suspect who has committed a crime throughout the community. Most look out to law enforcement to feel safe and to be protected while an officer’s job is to enforce the laws. We have heard of police misconduct more and more today. There have been discussions of integrity issues also. Can officers be honest and do their job without any kind of discrimination or without having any malicious intent? We have heard of officers being bribed to keep quiet about illegal activity and so on. In this paper we will be discussing misconduct and integrity testing of law enforcement officers, police misconduct/corruption, what it means for law enforcement officers, and what they must do or what they experience with this topic.

3 When officers don’t carry out their duties properly, they are supposed to be held accountable (UNDOC, 2011). A handbook is put in use for officers to go by giving them a sense of direction and to take responsibility for any actions or wrongdoings. The handbook is meant to uphold police integrity and deter misconduct to enhance public confidence in policing. Police integrity keeps officers from misusing their powers and abusing their rights and privileges (UNDOC, 2011). Within every policing agency comes the existence of dishonesty, lack of professionalism, and criminal behavior. To find out and study police misconduct, researchers have resorted to methodologies but have failed to provide systematic, nationwide data on police crime. This results in a problem with the lack of documentation to provide this data, since this could help implement and develop policies to deter police crime and control damage to police- community relations (Stinson, et al. 2016). With sex-related police crime, a study revealed a total of 422 forcible or statutory rapes, 352 cases of forcible fondling, and 94 sodomy arrest cases. Children seem to be more vulnerable to police officers who perpetrate sex crimes. Close to half of the known victims were children. Arrested officers were charged on at least one charge in four out of five (80%) of sex-related cases in which conviction data was available (Stinson, et al. 2016). The odds of job loss are 2.8 times greater if the officer arrested is convicted of a sex-related crime. With alcohol-related police crime officers arrested being employed by law enforcement agencies, 1-99 full-time sworn employees lost their jobs in less than half (44.6%) of the alcohol-related cases. Officers being employed by agencies with 100 or more full-time sworn employees lost their jobs in less than one-third (29.8%) of the alcohol-related cases (Stinson, et al. 2016). Drunk driving by police officers is a major issue and concern. Sworn police officers typically don’t arrest other sworn police officers who are engaging in drunk driving. It usually is an incident that causes

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4 them to be arrested such as involved traffic accidents that usually result in victim injury or fatalities. DUI officer arrests that are involved in traffic accident is about 51% and victim injury is 24.1%, or fatalities resulting in 4%. About 29.8% are the officers arrested for DUI cases (Stinson, et al. 2016). Drug-related police crime is not the personal use of drugs but involves drug trafficking, facilitation of the drug trade, and pat downs of citizens usually affiliated with the trade of cocaine and crack. Cocaine and marijuana taken together account for over half of the drug- related police arrests (Stinson, et al. 2016). With over that amount being profit-motivated for police crime. One-third of officers involved in domestic violence resulted in the arrested officer losing their job because of the arrest. An arrested officer is less likely to be convicted when the victim is currently involved versus someone else being involved. The officer involved in domestic violence is greater when the relationship with the victim is more distant. Patrol officers on the streets are usually involved with profit-motivated police crime (Stinson, et al. 2016). These are more street crimes than white-collar crimes. From highest to lowest percentages of most serious offense charges were unclassified thefts at 16%, pretenses at 12.5%, drug offenses at 11.9%, robbery at 6.4%, thefts from buildings at 5.8%, and extortion or blackmail at 5.3%. Officers arrested for profit-motivated crime was 67% and the ones resulting in convictions were 57.4%. All these police crimes hinder the law enforcement enterprise and what it means to be a law enforcement officer to protect and serve (Stinson, et al. 2016). To maintain the public’s trust police misconduct must be dealt with ethically. Police officers take an oath of office by adhering to the code of ethics before entering the profession. As a condition of their employment officers are sworn to maintain high ethical standards and to protect society (Barry, 1999). Police misconduct has been rooted since the beginning of law

5 enforcement in America. This allows us to comprehend how deeply the problem is rooted. Considering the more recent years and the past gives us a chance to learn from our mistakes, so we don’t repeat them, and gives us a chance to navigate to an improved state. Misconduct should be addressed not just in an ethical frame but a legal one too (Barry, 1999). Over the years police misconduct has only been addressed from the legal frame, with no consideration given to morality. When an officer acts morally they have the three virtues of truthfulness, justice, and good loyalty. Police agencies need to incorporate ethical accountability in their decision making as a result they will be heading in the right direction and will improve their agency (Barry, 1999). There are six steps an organization can use to improve the organizational culture. The entire organization must be considered and viewed not just an incident that occurred or an individual officer. The first step is to ensure ethics training is offered throughout an officer's career. Some officers over time forget what oath they have taken (Barry, 1999). They need to emphasize the role they have taken responsibility for, what it means, and the important role they play in society. The second step requires leaders to be proactive in preventing police misconduct. Some officers have had former complaints about them. Most police misconduct has happened in low-income areas. Something for leaders to consider monitoring closely (Barry, 1999). The third step is that organizations need to acknowledge virtuous conduct. As bad behavior needs to be addressed the opposite should be the case too. This could be incorporated into the promotion process. This could show other fellow officers that virtuous conduct is an attribute of a leader, whether it is off-duty or on-duty behavior (Barry, 1999). Both need to be recognized. The fifth step should be that the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) empower their Internal Affairs Bureaus (IAB). The Bureau needs to be proactive in dealing with police misconduct. That way there are

6 no Deputy Chiefs put into an uncomfortable situation to do their job morally or have loyalty to the officer. The sixth step should be considering a disciplinary matrix when deciding corrective actions. When officers are aware of the possible consequences of their actions, they will be more cautious about their conduct to avoid punishment (Barry, 1999). Officers need to know that virtuous conduct will be rewarded, and the converse is also true. These steps will improve American policing since it is morally sound and will bring the benefits of empowering leadership, improving organizational culture, and making police organizations more responsive to their communities (Barry, 1999). When police integrity is discussed, it means a police force that has little or no corruption or misconduct. Corruption can be defined as dishonesty for personal gain and integrity can be defined as “the normative inclination among police to resist temptations to abuse the rights and privileges of their corruption (Belasic, n.d.).” Integrity can be based on an individual’s ethical values or moral principles. The higher your ethical values are the lower your chance of corruption (Belasic, n.d.). Everyone has their moral principles. In law enforcement, they require their officers to maintain incorruptible integrity. Police officers are also held to a higher standard at work and in their personal lives. Even though they are held up to that standard and sometimes violate the same laws they enforce and swore to uphold still take the chance of corruption and illegal activity (Belasic, n.d.). Some officers through laziness, frustration, peer pressure, or just ignorance may push the limits of the law thinking they are protecting the public. The truth is if an officer is willing to set aside his ethical values to push the law, are the same ones that you hear or read about after being arrested or indicted for violating these same laws (Belasic, n.d.). For this occupation to be considered professional, an officer cannot bend the law and must act professionally. To maintain a culture of integrity within an agency, the leaders must be role

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7 models for ethical behavior. To have an agency with high integrity and to support that integrity requires a good hiring process, academy training, and leadership (Belasic, n.d.). Integrity tests are simulated events that place a police officer unwittingly in a monitored situation with an opportunity for unethical decision-making. Integrity tests are useful means to prevent and detect police corruption. During an integrity test, an officer does not know about the testing (DCAF, 2020). They are placed in a monitored situation that will offer an opportunity to act in an unethical or unlawful manner. There are several reasons why integrity testing is important such as to detect, investigate, and prosecute integrity violations; to build a case against an official already under investigation; to help deter criminal conduct; to identify risks and needs (areas, units, or positions more prone to misconduct or unethical behavior (DCAF, 2020). Need for additional anti-corruption legislation, procedures and revision of existing ones, further training for officers, and more integrity testing); to support performance appraisals and promotion systems. Integrity testing has two categories either “targeted” or “random.” Some integrity testing can be used for pre-employment and in-service screening, but it is mostly used for the latter in policing (DCAF, 2020). Targeted refers to specific individuals or groups. Targeted is reactive and proactive. Reactivity goes beyond traditional methods used and has a deterrent effect, it is implemented in response to allegations or suspicions. An example simulation would be a robbery set up with some valuable goods and the officer to the scene who has been accused of stealing from prior scenes (DCAF, 2020). Random testing is just randomly done to see how an officer acts in a situation and whether they do the right thing or not. An example would be an actor who gets pulled over for speeding and offers the officer a bribe, the control unit monitors the situation to see if the officer accepts or denies the bribe and whether s/he reports the incident (DCAF, 2020). Research has

8 shown that targeted testing is more effective in exposing corruption. Random testing can be more expensive due to its scope, and some argue that this isn’t a meaningful deterrent to be used. Targeted testing seems to be more beneficial and more efficient compared to random testing. They both can be used to fight corruption and unethical behavior. Random tests can also be more difficult to justify, especially when no specific suspicion exists (DCAF, 2020). Random testing also can place mistrust in the police department which can result in an officer’s morale decrease. This can hurt random testing and cause a negative work environment. With targeted it is already suspected of unethical behavior or unlawful towards an individual or group of officers. This would resort to weeding out the bad apples. Law enforcement agencies should consider these four reasons before conducting an integrity test (DCAF, 2020). One they are costly, two they can create mistrust without a precise form of clear communication of their purpose and limits, three if not properly regulated they can be misused to discredit rivals within the organization, and four to ensure efficiency and privacy they require an appropriate legal framework (DCAF, 2020). One of Saint Leo University's core values is responsible stewardship. This means the responsible oversees and protects something considered worth caring for and preserving. A police officer's job when they are sworn in is to protect people and serve their communities. They take an oath to uphold their ethical and moral standards and to do what it takes ethically to perform their job. The community is entrusting a police officer’s duties to the community.

9 References Barry, D. (1999). Handling police misconduct in an ethical way. UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. Retrieved from: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=2055&context=rtds Belasic, R. (n.d.). Police Integrity in Law Enforcement: Are we really doing enough? Retrieved from: https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FCJEI/Programs/SLP/Documents/Full-Text/Belasic- randy-research-paper.aspx DCAF. (2020). Thematic Brief: Police Integrity Testing. Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance. Retrieved from: https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/publications/documents/DCAF_Brief_Police_Inte grity_Testing_Jan2021_final_ENG_0.pdf Stinson, P., Liederbach, J., & et al. (2016). Police Integrity Lost: A Study of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested . Retrieved from: https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/249850.pdf United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2011). Handbook on police accountability, oversight, and integrity . Criminal justice handbook series. Retrieved from: https://web-s- ebscohost-com.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/ bmxlYmtfXzQyMDkzMV9fQU41?sid=0962d294-4cf5-46bf-961a- 34ce72769286@redis&vid=3&format=EB&rid=1

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