Ok, here's a question...?

Question

Imagine you are a newly appointed chief of police in a municipality noted for having problems with police corruption. What would be your strategies for reform from the ground up. How would you go about turning your department around?

Answer 1

The first rule for any new manager is to learn how the organization works before you go changing things.

After that then I would shuffle around my officers. If they are taking money from people on their patrol route then send them to another route.

Check the paper work and see who has had complaints registered against them. Check out these officers, some of them could be problems and may have to be reassigned or let go. This can also tell you who the mavericks are and you might want to bring some of them on board your anticorruption program. If you get a properly motivated maverick who is willing to work with you then you will have a bloodhound searching for corruption and a believable one. Monitor these officers and protect them if you have to. Watch the film Serpico and you will see what I mean.

Talk with the citizens, go out on the route and talk with the storeowners and ask them about corruption. Many won't say, but if one person tells you he has to pay protection then you know most of the other people on his patrol route do as well. Don’t go onto the news yet go door to door. Hang around a few coffee shops and see who gets free coffee. It is minor, but if an officer accepts free coffee then he is more likely to accept something larger.

Visit your officers during role call and tell them that you are actively hunting for corrupt officers. You are not going on a witch-hunt, but you know a corruption problem exists and you want to change it, no you WILL change it and you will reform this department, but you need their help. “This is a warning to those who are not corrupt, to remain that way, and to those who are to wise up. This problem and my task force on it are not going away. Things will change and different priorities will come up, but I am serious here I am not going to forget about how bad of a problem this is and it will never be gone from my radar.”

Set up a way for officers to come in and report corruption, not to you, but to someone else where they can be more discrete. You need to work hard to protect your source, nobody likes a snitch and those on the take will need to silence these sources and they may be willing to kill to do so. We aren’t just talking about being fired, but being sent to jail.

Offer an amnesty program. If officers come in and admit corruption by themselves then you have to promise to not persecute or prosecute them. If a corrupt officer wants to come clean then give him or her the chance and give them a few points for finally coming clean, so cut them a break. If you establish a pattern of this then you will encourage more of it. However, taking a few "contributions" is different than dealing drugs or stealing from drug dealers. There are some people who will have to be prosecuted. If that person comes forward then, yes you are going to have to dismiss them from the force, but you need to cut them a break on their punishment. It has to fit with the legal code, but it can be lighter. The important thing is to not punish the (now former) corrupt officers, but to get them off the force. Once they are out of your department then you don’t care what happens to them, they are just Joe Citizen and subject to the full weight of the law if they slip up.

Once you set this up then tell your officers, have someone from the DA’s office back you on this. Tell your officers that you are going to stomp on any officer that you find who is corrupt and you are going to stomp HARD. You are not going to just remove them from the force, but you are going to push for prosecution and for the harshest penalty. Then do it, do it quickly and publicize it. Promise that you will keep things quite if an officer turns himself or herself in, but if you catch them then you are going to parade them in front of the entire nation. “It is far better to come to me and take your punishment then to have the weight of me, the mayor’s office, the DA’s office and the media come down on your neck.”

Run your Internal Affairs Division through a fine-toothed comb. Investigate these officers like they are guilty of something, tell them this and that you expect their full cooperation. You need to tell them that only when you have a group that you can trust will you be willing to unleash them. I would even ask the FBI for some help. Once they are cleared and once you can trust them then you can sic them on the rest of the force. You are going to give them the lead to do what they want and investigate who they want, including yourself and you are going to back them to the hilt. If these guys do well then you are going to introduce them to the DA and to the Mayor. You will put your Internal Affairs Officers on the map, you might lose them, but you want to do that, you want to promote the honest cops.

Have the FBI run a background investigation on YOURSELF and submit it to the mayor. He has got to have a person he can trust and if you are going to shake the trees for corruption then you had better be clean yourself. If you have some past problems then confess them to the mayor first, no one is perfect. But, you want your DA and your Mayor to have full faith in you when you go after the corrupt officers. You want to tell your Internal Affairs Department that you are doing this. It isn’t any of their business to know what’s inside, but they have to know that you are clean and that you are going to go through what you expect them to go through.

Visit the Police Academy and tell them that you are fighting corruption and you will not stand for it. If a new officer sees corruption and reports it then you are going to keep his report secret and you are going to stand by your honest officers. Keep an eye on their career, the old guard, even officers who weren’t corrupt, will try to slow down their career to punish them for breaking the code, you need to alleviate as much of this as possible.

When someone reports corruption be careful on how you investigate it, be subtle for a time and then crank it up. You don’t want the corrupt cop and his buddies to connect the investigation with another police officer. This will only encourage the blue line to draw tighter. It will also put your sources in mortal danger. Cops are the best investigators in the world, so you have to act like you are up against the best. Just because they may be corrupt and lazy doesn’t mean that they were always were, and even a bad cop will suddenly turn into a good investigator when his career and freedom are on the line.

Find one of your best former cops, maybe someone who is retired and ask them to come back to service then put them in charge of the investigation. Make sure you get the FBI to help you investigate this guy before you put him in the post. Not only does he have to be a respected cop, but he has to be squeaky clean. Introduce this guy to the Mayor and to the DA. Make him feel that he is coming back to fill a very important need. If he knows that he has the backing of the whole team, and that he is doing something important then he is going to work harder for you.

Once you get the ball rolling then talk with the media about it, better yet get your head of your new anticorruption force to talk with the media. Make a short statement that you called him back to help and you have the DA’s office and the Mayor’s office backing you and him. Then let him have the spotlight. People don’t want to hear a politician speaking they want to hear the man who is putting his nose to the ground and doing the real work. You will look better if you are standing behind your officers and seen there. Let your support speak for you, not your own voice. When a politician opens his mouth people think it will only spout out lies and foolishness. You have to admit that you are a politician now more than just a cop. The media is going to know who you are and they are going to report on you, but people prefer the modest person so let your officers steal the spotlight; besides if a mistake is made it will bear on you, but you will have a clear person who has to share that burden as well (and a possible scapegoat—you have to be practical).

Answer 2

The Chief would have to develop a task force of four to five squads of clean cops. Each squad would be led by veteran investigators from other cities, the further away the better. Then fill those squads with six rookie cops recruiting the best of the best from the police academy. None of the rookie cops attached to this task force may have any relatives in the police department as this would pose as a security concern.

Each squad would have their own special prosecutor from the DA's office whose only job is to help the squads develop cases against corrupt cops targeted in the various investigations.

These squads, code named: THUNDER STRIKE, would be stationed in a separate and undisclosed location known only to the Chief of police. The squads would have to be given Carte Blanche for special equipment and over time. The squads may arrest any officer on the force, no matter what his or her rank, and the special prosecutor would hand down indictments swiftly and secure convictions with hard time for every cop involved. No deals. Every body does time.

After a blitzkrieg of arrest and convictions I guarantee the corruption would stop. You would also get a lot of cops taking their pensions early, but you would have a clean department in no time.

Answer 3

I'd start with a systematic replacement of department supervisors. If there is corruption, supervisors at all levels have a responsibility to be aware of what their subordinates are doing and how its getting done. All citizen complaints and alleged policy or law violations by department employees would be thoroughly investigated and immediate corrective action taken. This may range from remedial training, to rehab, to termination, to prosecution. When corruption occurs in a department, not all personnel are necessarily involved. The rights of good honest hard working individuals must be protected while weeding out the bad seeds.

Answer 4

I'd develop a good relationship with Rudy Giuliani and learn from him. He was able to turn N.Y. City around.

Investigate the mayor, city commission, etc.

Put the entire forces' jobs on probation for a year. Get an outside investigation started and make this a priority.

Unfortunately, a lot of good people will be killed while trying to turn this around.

Answer 5

1. Review the past corruption investigations. What kind of corruption was going on? Who was involved? How were they disciplined? Who conducted the investigation?

2. Review/rewrite the Standard Operating Procedure manual. Establish chain of command, off duty employment guidelines, overtime assignments, promotion standards, etc.

3. Update or implement a rigid disciplinary policy. Counseling to admonishment to written reprimand to suspension to termination.

4. Review/rewrite evidence and property procedures. Proper locks, separate storage for drug items, dual sign out procedures, evidence destruction or return procedures, etc.

5. Duty schedule review. Shift rotations, shift manpower requirements.

6. Records review and policy updates on filing and storage.

7. Inspect and inventory ALL equipment, vehicles, weapons, radios, etc.

8. Budget review. Equipment needs, Manpower needs, examine past expenditures for waste and fraud.

That will keep you busy for the first year or so.

Answer 6

Simple,chop off their hand(from wrist) apply this to a a few guys and I tell you the graph will fall down to zero, no one will think of corruption,because they are using the law of jungles for their ulterior motives and a source of loss to the tax payer money.

Answer 7

This is a great question. I don't know the answer, but I would do my best to research how it has been done in the past. History is the best lesson for the future.

Answer 8

I would institute a truth and reconciliation program, where people who come clean will not be prosecuted. If, however, they do not come clean, they will be prosecuted when the truth comes out. Make it legal and follow through with it.

Answer 9

..... you must be a criminal justice major I think i would apply the broken window theory or something