Enhancing Police Integrity

How can we enhance police integrity? After surveying more than 3,000 police officers on how they would respond, the authors went on to study three police agencies which scored highly. The authors conclude that effective administration focuses on organizational rulemaking; detecting, investigating and disciplining rule violations; circumscribing the "code of silence" that prohibits police from reporting the misconduct of their colleagues; and understanding the influence of public expectations and agency history.

How can we enhance police integrity? After surveying more than 3,000 police officers on how they would respond, the authors went on to study three police agencies which scored highly. The authors conclude that effective administration focuses on organizational rulemaking; detecting, investigating and disciplining rule violations; circumscribing the "code of silence" that prohibits police from reporting the misconduct of their colleagues; and understanding the influence of public expectations and agency history.

Presenting a comprehensive overview of the potential for police misconduct worldwide, leading criminal justice scholars have compiled survey and case data from 10 countries chronicling police integrity and misconduct.

Policing in South Africa has gained notoriety through its extensive history of oppressive law enforcement. In 1994, as the country’s apartheid system was replaced with a democratic order, the new government faced the significant challenge of transforming the South African police force into a democratic police agency—the South African Police Service (SAPS)—that would provide unbiased policing to all the country’s people. More than two decades since the initiation of the reforms, it appears that the SAPS has rapidly developed a reputation as a police agency beset by challenges to its integrity. This book offers a unique perspective by providing in-depth analyses of police integrity in South Africa. It is a case study that systematically and empirically explores the contours of police integrity in a young democracy. Using the organizational theory of police integrity, the book analyzes the complex set of historical, legal, political, social, and economic circumstances shaping police integrity. A discussion of the theoretical framework is accompanied by the results of a nationwide survey of nearly 900 SAPS officers, probing their familiarity with official rules, their expectations of discipline within the SAPS, and their willingness to report misconduct. The book also examines the influence of the respondents’ race, gender, and supervisory status on police integrity. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, policing, sociology, political science, as well as to police administrators interested in expanding their knowledge about police integrity and enhancing it in their organizations.

What is the best way to define the police? Why do we have police at all? In modern democracies like the United States and Great Britain, why is most policing done by employees of the state? What is the relationship between police and the law? What makes a good police officer? In addressing these questions, Klockars makes the reader look at the idea of police from a new perspective. First he explains how any definition of police must include the reality of coercive force--the fact that police officers everywhere have the right to "forcibly compel other people to do something." Next he describes the evolution of the police in the United States vis-a-vis the police in Great Britain. After exploring the role of the detective, he highlights the moral conflicts and issues of discretion that police officers face daily. Finally, Klockars examines what makes a good police officer. "An informative introductory resource. . . may prove valuable even to graduate students." --The Social Science Journal

This work provides an innovative new look at police ethics, including results from an updated version of the classic Police Integrity Questionnaire, including new social and technological advances. It aims to push the study of police research further, expanding on and testing police integrity theory and methodology, the relationship between community and integrity, and the influence of multiculturalism and globalization on policing and community attitudes. This work brings together experienced scholars who have used the police integrity theory and the accompanying methodology to measure police integrity in eleven countries, and provide advance and sophisticated explorations of the topic. Organized into three thematic sections, it explores the testing methodology for international comparisons, insights into police-community relations, and explores police subcultures. This innovative book will be of interest to researchers in criminology & criminal justice, particularly with an interest in policing, as well as related fields such as sociology, public policy, and comparative law.