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Building Integrity and Reducing Drug Corruption

NCJ Number
127737
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 58 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1991) Pages: 27-41
Author(s)
Anonymous
Date Published
1991
Length
15 pages
Annotation
With the widespread availability of illicit drugs comes ample opportunity for corrupt police performance, but police departments can discourage such corruption and build integrity by employing all three components as recommended in this package.
Abstract
First, since individual values can be determined by past behavior, the department should thoroughly investigate applicants and hire only those who demonstrate desirable values. Ideally, an applicant should show no prior drug abuse or at least a long abstinence prior to employment and no signs of returning to abuse. Past cocaine or heroin experimentation could be grounds for disqualification, but five years' abstinence is acceptable; for marijuana, two years is enough. Second, the department must continuously reinforce integrity by ensuring that officers have greater understanding of its importance in policing. This includes a realization that, while interdependence and mutual reliance are crucial, a code of silence is nothing more than a code to protect and perpetuate corruption. Third, the department must reduce the opportunity for human failure by creating an anti-corruption environment using all legitimate positive and negative inducements. Management should set a proper example and send the message internally and publicly that integrity benefits everyone. Officers should not be put on assignments for which they have not been trained. Reports of wrongdoing should be referred to Internal Affairs rather than discussed with the officer at issue. Corruption is an abuse of democratic freedom, and everyone in the department must be committed to stopping it.