Police Integrity in the U.S.A.

• In Event: Exploring Police Integrity Across the World, Part II

Abstract

This chapter explores the contours of police integrity among the American police officers, based on a police integrity survey conducted from 2010-2013. The police integrity survey was distributed electronically to police officers in about a dozen police agencies, ranging from very small to very large police agencies. About 1,500 police officers evaluated 11 scenarios describing hypothetical examples of police misconduct, ranging from police corruption and the use of excessive force to planting of evidence and falsification of the official records. The results show that most of the respondents had no problems recognizing described behavior as rule-violating, that they perceived it to be serious, that they expected some discipline, and that a substantial minority would protect such behavior in silence.

Authors

• Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich, Michigan State University

• Maria (Maki) Haberfeld, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

• Robert Patrick Peacock, Michigan State University