The New York police department dismissed, terminated, or forced individuals to resign, citing police corruption. However, this term challenged established notions of corruption, such as police misconduct. While corruption was defined as a separate form of problem, different from misconduct in the past, the terms are not mutually exclusive and are entwined. It is also important to discern that cases involving police separation from the New York department are infrequent and represent a small section of the department’s history (Fyfe & Kane 162). Additionally, individuals associated with these actions are more likely to have less education than their counterparts. It is also crucial to mention that the New York department has exhibited fewer cases involving corruption and misconduct due to continually integrating racial diversity. In this way, Black police officers, while showing decreasing rates of dismissal, exhibit higher statistics than white or Hispanic officers.
Established definitions for various criminal activities committed by police officers do not provide an accurate and unambiguous explanation. For instance, some police officers dismissed from the New York police department showcased various money-making schemes that involved police misconduct, the fact that varied depending on their position within the department (Fyfe & Kane 191). When they take bribes to avoid enforcing the law, police officers participate in what many individuals consider police corruption. Nonetheless, it is unclear whether police officers that conduct burglaries or robberies, sell drugs, shoplift, or perform insurance or welfare fraud when they are off-duty are taking part in police corruption (Fyfe & Kane 191). In this way, we have developed a faction of wrongdoing termed profit-motivated misconduct. It prompts future administrators and scholars to rethink the concept of police corruption. As such, changing times and alternations in the words used have alleviated the ideology of clear-cut definitions (Trouillot & Carby 3).
The study also elicits aspects of involuntary dismissal that posit a negative picture in the New York police department involving racial bias when dealing with police misconduct. Black officers are more likely to experience this issue, which may be attributed to the domination of policing by one racial group. In this way, they developed unhealthy solidarity that results in behavior such as a willingness to overlook misconduct by other officers (Fyfe & Kane 43). The behavior illustrates a tendency for individuals to use different connotations ofa word to define actions, exhibiting varying meaning based on a singular account to explain themselves and influence issues based on their preference (Trouillot & Carby 5). This issue may have existed in the police department and is losing ground as it becomes racially diverse. It is also possible to account for this change resulting from increased minority officers’ influence on the NYPD. In this case, their vulnerability may be decreasing in terms of disciplinary arbitrariness.
Furthermore, it is also possible to define reduced cases of police misconduct based on race as a result of the Internal Affairs Bureau. The government agency boosted its vigor while the police department has better racial and gender relations, increasing its variations based on culture (Fyfe & Kane 179). Police officers are less likely to engage in misconduct or corruption due to increased sensitivity. Therefore, diversification has led to healthier policing as misconduct cases continue dropping.
Misconduct and corruption are not mutually exclusive issues in the New York police department and posit a novel approach to the issues that indicate a merging of the terms. Police officers conduct various activities that may subject them to dismissal. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe these actions may be incorrect as they overlap, showcasing that misconduct and corruption are not as separate as one may have assumed but share various tenets, necessitating deep thought when using these words.
Work Cited
Fyfe , James J, and Robert Kane. “Bad Cops: A Study of Career-Ending Misconduct Among New York City Police Officers.” U.S. Department of Justice, 2006, pp. 1–423.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, and Hazel V. Carby. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. 2nd ed., Beacon Press, 2015.