Police Corruption
The code is considered to be police corruption and misconduct. Any officers who engaged in discriminatory arrests, physical or verbal harassment, and selective enforcement of the law are considered to be corrupt. Many officers who follow the code may participate in some of these acts during their career for personal matters or in order to protect or support fellow officers. Some officers may accept bribes, get involved with extortion, steal goods or sell drugs. All of these are considered illegal offenses and are grounds for suspension or immediate dismissal. Officers who follow the code are unable to report fellow officers who participate in corruption due to the unwritten laws of their "police family."
"Testilying" - a portmanteau of "testify" and "lying" - is a United States police slang term used when an officer gives a false testimony in court in favor of their fellow police officers. If an officer chooses not to lie in court they may be threatened or ostracized by fellow police officers. In 1994, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption also known as the Mollen Commission did a two year investigation on testilying in law enforcement. They discovered that some officers falsified documents such as arrest reports, warrants and evidence for an illegal arrest or search. Some police officers also fabricated stories to a jury. The Commission found that the officers were not testilying for greed but because they believed that they were imprisoning people that deserved it. Also many prosecutors allowed testilying to occur. People involved in testilying believed that it was not corruption but yet another way to "get the job done."
Read more about this topic: Blue Code Of Silence
Famous quotes containing the words police and/or corruption:
“In Africa, there is much confusion.... Before, there was no radio, or other forms of communication.... Now, in Africa ... the government talks, people talk, the police talk, the people don’t know anymore. They aren’t free.”
—Youssou N’Dour (b. 1959)
“Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)