I investigated the sites of police departments in Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta. The first two instruct the complaint to be made either in person or over the phone, with a strong encouragement towards the former. Atlanta PD site has no clear instructions on the matter. None of the sites clearly state who will be investigating the case. In all cases, it was very difficult to navigate the site to find the information about reporting the officer. I feel it is made this way to discourage complaints.
Police corruption is a type of infraction where police officer breaks the laws and abuses their power for personal gain (Bonger, 2015). Some of the examples include bribery, forcing confessions, and police brutality.
Forms of police deviance other than corruption and excessive use of force (brutality) include police criminality, abuse of authority, and misconduct (Bonger, 2015). These happen when the police directly engage in crime and violate the legal mandate or the rules and regulations of their agencies.
The Knapp Commission was a major investigation of corruption within the New York Police Department in the 1970s (Robinson & Cussen, 2017). It was influential as it uncovered a massive and deliberate system of chain corruption that pulled in new arrivals to the force.
The slippery slope concept is a kind of an idea that supposes that small steps can lead to a large detrimental effect (Bonger, 2015).
Excessive force is when the police officer uses more force than is necessary to stop a crime (Bonger, 2015). An example of such would be breaking a perpetrator’s legs instead of cuffing them, to prevent escape.
Some of the methods of combatting corruption include wearing body cameras (which improves accountability and provides hard evidence of infractions), rotating police officers to break up any forming corruption rings, and performing independent inspections of reported police misconduct cases (Robinson & Cussen, 2017).
Entrapment stands for a case where the police force an individual to commit a crime, through pressure or coercion (Robinson & Cussen, 2017). An example of such could include an officer undercover forcing an individual to participate in a crime by threatening them with gang violence if they do not comply.
References
Bonger, W. A. (2015). An introduction to criminology. Routledge.
Robinson, S., & Cussen, T. (2017). The criminology and criminal justice companion. Macmillan International Higher Education.