Priceless

An article was released by a public radio website for Minnesota State from a case involving a Police Officer pending since April of 2008. All of the given facts suggest it’s a clear case of police corruption, namely, Selective enforcement or non enforcement. By definition from Introduction to Criminal Justice, this type of corruption is said to be "an abuse of police power, when an officer abuses his discretion for money." This is seemingly the situation for Mike Roberts, a Police Officer who is being tried in Minnesota.

On May 13, 2009, an FBI agent who interviewed Roberts testified that secretly recorded video surveillance proved that the officer was sharing data from a squad computer, with who the officer knew to be a gang member. Each time information was shared, the informant gave Roberts one hundred dollars. In his statement, Roberts claimed he was not keeping the money for himself despite the video evidence showing him putting the money in his own pocket. Witnesses in the PD provided statements that the Officer also completed a false police report that says he placed the money in police inventory.

Many factors could have contributed to the outcome of the Officer's behavior. Although there is very little a police force can do in the way of controlling indivual ethic and moral values, there are certain things that can be heightened to hopefully prevent corruption, overall. PD’s could emphasize the severity as well as the consequences of police corruption. Perhaps stronger discipline may need to be enforced in such instances, along with extensive training programs that spotlight “zero tolerance” on corruption as part of a job requirement for pre hired officers.

Cites:
Defense lays out case in Minneapolis Police Corruption Trial. Article retrieved October 6, 2009, from website
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/05/13/mplspdcorrputiontrial/

Siegel, Larry. Introduction to Criminal Justice. Wadsworth, : Cengage Learning, 2008.