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Exploring Police Integrity pp 247–266Cite as

Similar, Different or Somewhere in Between? The Police Officer and Citizen Views on Police Misconduct

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Abstract

This study examined if the police and citizen views of police misconduct are similar, different, or somewhere in between with the three sets of survey data: the Klockars (Police corruption in thirty agencies in the United States, 1997. ICPSR version. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1999) data, the data administered to police officers from 2009 to 2010 in Texas, and the student survey data collected from 2013 to 2017 at the three 4-year public universities located in Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States. Results showed that the views of police officers were similar but also different on certain misconduct by their rank. Middle- and high-rank officers seem to share some common ground on assessments of police misconduct, but their views were significantly different from the views of line officers. Interestingly, line officers’ perceptions of the seriousness of police misconduct were somewhat similar to the views of university students. However, their perceptions of police misconduct differed by their academic majors, CJ majors vs. non-CJ majors. The results demonstrated the existence of a significant gap in the assessments of police misconduct provided by students and police officers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The unit of analysis in the study of Lim and Sloan (2016) was police department including county-level law enforcement agencies (Sheriff and Constable), so the agency-level violent crime rates were analyzed.

  2. 2.

    Its partial data were used in the study of Lim and Sloan (2016).

  3. 3.

    The scenario of C10 “Excessive force on car thief” was excluded because the newly developed survey questionnaire for university student populations includes three items related to police use-of excessive force against racial/ethnic minorities. These three items were not used as a proxy measure of C10 in the current study because the original case description of C10 did not reflect the racial aspects of police use-of-force.

  4. 4.

    The partial data were used in the studies of Lee et al. (2015) and Lim (2015).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Hyeyoung Lim

Authors
  1. Hyeyoung Lim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyeyoung Lim .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Sanja Kutnjak Ivković

  2. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    M. R. Haberfeld

Appendix: The Measurement of Police Integrity

Appendix: The Measurement of Police Integrity

  • C1 Off-duty Security System Business: An officer runs his own private business in which he sells and installs security devices, such as alarms, special locks, etc. He does this work during his off-duty hours.

  • C2 Free Meals, Discounts on Beat: An officer routinely accepts free meals, cigarettes, and other items of small value from merchants on his beat. He does not solicit these gifts and is careful not to abuse the generosity of those who give gifts to him.

  • C3 Bribe from Speeding Motorist: An officer stops a motorist for speeding. The officer agrees to accept a personal gift of half of the amount of the fine in exchange for not issuing a citation.

  • C4 Holiday Gifts from Merchants: An officer is widely liked in the community, and on holidays local merchants and restaurant and bar owners show their appreciation for his attention by giving him gifts of food and liquor.

  • C5 Crime Scene Theft of Watch: An officer discovers a burglary of a jewelry shop. The display cases are smashed and It is obvious that many Items have been taken. While searching the shop, he takes a watch, worth about 2 days pay for that officer. He reports that the watch had been stolen during the burglary.

  • C6 Auto Repair Shop 5% Kickback: A police officer has a private arrangement with a local auto body shop to refer the owners of the cars damaged in the accidents to the shop. In exchange for each referral, he receives a payment of 5% at the repair bill from the shop owner.

  • C7 Supervisor: Holiday for Tune-up: A police officer, who happens to be a very good auto mechanic, is scheduled to work during the coming holidays. A supervisor offers to give him these days off if he agrees to tune-up his supervisor’s personal car. Evaluate the SUPERVISOR’S behavior.

  • C8 Cover-up of Police DUI Accident: At 2 A.M., an officer, who is on duty, is driving his patrol car on a deserted road. He sees a vehicle that has been driven off the road and is stuck in a ditch. He approaches the vehicle and observes that the driver is not hurt but is obviously intoxicated. He also finds that the driver is a police officer. Instead of reporting this accident and offense he transports the driver to his home.

  • C9 Drink to Ignore Late Bar Closing: An officer finds a bar on his beat which is still serving drinks a half hour past its legal closing time. Instead of reporting this violation, the police officer agrees to accept a couple of free drinks from the owner.

  • C10 Excessive Force on Car Thief: Two officers on foot patrol surprise a man who is attempting to break into an automobile. The man flees. They chase him for about two blocks before apprehending him by tackling him and wrestling him to the ground. After he is under control both officers punch him a couple of times in the stomach as punishment for fleeing and resisting.

  • C11 Theft from Found Wallet: An officer finds a wallet in a parking lot. It contains the amount of money equivalent to a full-day’s pay for that officer. He reports the wallet as lost property but keeps the money for himself.

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Lim, H. (2019). Similar, Different or Somewhere in Between? The Police Officer and Citizen Views on Police Misconduct. In: Kutnjak Ivković, S., Haberfeld, M.R. (eds) Exploring Police Integrity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29065-8_10

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