CRIM306: Law Enforcement Unit

What is discretion & discrimination?

Occurs when a discretionary decision-maker treats a group or indiv differently from others for no justifiable reason

What are some factors that discretion/discrimination is often based on?

-Sexual orientation

-Race

-National origin

-Poor

-Religion

What are two forms of discrimination?

-Enforcing the law differently

-Withholdings the protection of the law

What does discrimination result in?

-Greater disrespect

-Greater use of force

-Racial profiling

-Greater use of pretext stops

What is the case of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr an example of?

Racial profiling

What did U.S. v. Martinez Fuerte 425 U.S. 931 (1976) do?

Legitimized the use of race as a criterion in profiles

What did Whren v. US 517 U.S. 806 (1996) do?

-Pretext stops upheld

-The law allows race to be considered as only one element in deciding to stop an individual

What is racial profiling? Who is targeted?

-Occurs when an officer uses a "profile" to stop a driver, usually to obtain a consent to search for a vehicle

-Minorities are highly targeted based on the assumption that they are more likely to commit criminal acts

Does a profile supply reasonable suspicion?

No, officers need articulable facts supporting their suspicion against a particular suspect

NYPD Stop & Frisk Policy?

As applied was declared unconstitutional in 2013 for "indirect racial profiling"

Criminal Justice Reforms in VA as of March 2021

-Ban on No Knock Search Warrants

-Limiting use of chokeholds, requiring officer intervention in excessive force cases

-Designating secondary traffic offenses: tinted windows, obstructed view, broken light, loud exhaust, smoking with minor present

-No search because of the smell of marijuana

-Mandatory racial bias, de-escalation and crisis intervention training

-Caren Act: making it a hate crime to make false 911 calls motivated by race or other bias

Use of force?

-Police may only use deadly force when the officer reasonably believes the subject poses a significant threat of serious bodily injury or death to themselves or others (Tennessee v. Garner)

-Force is viewed form an objective reasonable officer under the circumstances standard (Graham v. Connor)

Placebo lies?

Harmless lies

Blue lies?

Used to control the person or to make the job easier in situations where force could be used

Deviant lies?

Used in the courtroom or to cover up wrongdoing

Tolerated lies?

"Necessary evils" such as lying during interrogations or other parts of the investigative phase

Accepted lies?

Those used during undercover investigations, sting operations

What standards must accepted lies meet?

-Must be in furtherance of legit organizational purpose

-Must be a clear relationship b/t the need to deceive and the accomplishment of an organizational purpose

-Nature of deception must be one wherein officers and the management structure acknowledge that deception will better serv the public interest than the truth

Benefits of lies to suspects?

-May produce more truthful confessions than police could otherwise get

-Reputational harm can be mitigated by understanding not to take lies into court

Consequences of lies to suspects?

-Reputation of police force with courts may be diminished

-Relationship with community may be hurt

-Suspects/court may not believe officers when they tell the truth

Benefits of lies to the court?

-May result in more warrants being signed

-More defendants convicted who officers believe are guilty

-Loyalty to other officers upheld

Consequences of lies to the court?

-Separation of powers violated

-Breach of trust with courts and community when exposed

-There will be times when all you will have is your reputation for honesty

-Criminal/civil exposure to officers

-Enables less than thorough police work in some instances

-Honest officers not believed

Reactive investigations?

-Attempts to reconstruct a crime after it occurs

-Consists of gathering evidence to identify and prosecute the offender

-Investigators may develop early prejudice about likely perpetrator

What can early prejudices about perpetrators cause investigators to do?

-Be tempted to engage in noble-cause corruption to obtain a conviction

-Ignore or conceal evidence that contradicts their beliefs

-Overstate existing evidence

-Manufacture or alter evidence

Permissible interrogation tactics?

-Calling an interrogation an "interview"

-Using a non custodial setting

-Misrepresenting the seriousness of the offense

-Manipulative appeals to suspect's conscience

-Interrogator misrepresenting their identity as long as it's not a Miranda violation

-Good cop/bad cop

-Father Confessor approach

Impermissible interrogation tactics?

-Physical force

-Using fabricated physical evidence (fake lab report)

-Making promises of leniency beyond the interrogator's power

-Miranda violations

What are a few voluntariness factors?

-Length of questioning

-Intoxication of suspect

-Mental health of suspects

-Tone/insults/swearing

-Restraints during the interrogation

Informants?

-Individuals who aren't police officers but assist in providing info about criminal activity

-May be motivated by a deal with prosecutor for leniency, monetary, profit, revenge, need for attention, repentance, and coercion

-Able to operate under fewer restrictions than police

Potential pitfalls of informants?

-Often are criminals themselves

-To be successful, informants must be convincing liars

-Crucial to law enforcement success, agents judged by performance of informants

-Meetings with law enforcement must be done in secret

-Power imbalance between agents and informants

Dangers in use of informants?

-Becoming too intimate with informants

-Overestimating the veracity of info provided

-Potential for being duped by informant

-Engaging in unethical or illegal behaviors on behalf of the informant

-Using informants to entrap people (creates crimes)

-Using coercion and intimidation to force informant's cooperation

-Protecting informants who continue to commit crime

Informants and the FBI?

-Heavily monitored by FBI management

-Layers of safeguards on handling of informants

-Informants must be read expectations

-Two witnesses to any source payments

Cons of using undercover officers?

-Deceive suspects and others

-Difficult for officer and their family

Noble-Cause corruption?

-Involves officers employing unethical means to catch criminals because "it's the right thing to do"

-Perceived by officers as fulfillment of their profound moral commitment to make the world a safer place to lives

-Ends v. means thinking

What two duties do police always have and which does noble cause corruption ignore?

-1) Protect public safety

-2) Be a steward of the criminal justice system

-It ignores (2)

Examples of noble-cause corruption

-Lying: on search warrants, reports, grand jury, court

-Planting or manufacturing evidence

-Unlawful searches and seizure

-Excessive force and intimidation

-Unlawful interrogation techniques

What is economic corruption?

Officers using their position to acquire unfair benefits

What does economic corruption include?

-Gratuities

-Kickbacks

-Overtime schemes

-Misuse of dept property

-Payoffs

-Ticket "fixing"

-Bribery/extortion

-Theft

Gratuities?

-Items of value given because of role or position, rather than personal relationship

-A gift is personal and has no strings attached

-Ex- free ice cream

Profession Courtesy & Ticket-Fixing?

-The practice of not ticketing an officer who is stopped for speeding or other driving violations

-Justifications for not ticketing other officers are diverse and creative

-Professional courtesy tends to bleed over into other forms of misconduct

Graft?

-Refers to exploitation of one's role, such as accepting bribes or protection money

-Officers in the US rated bribery as the second most serious offense. Only theft from a crime scene was rated as more serious

-Ex- My Two Uncle Bills

Criminal cop stats?

-Average of 1,100 police officers arrested per year

-2 police officers arrested per day

-Don't tell us the whole story due to the fact that many officers are offered to resign in lieu of being charged

Costs of corruption?

-The costs to communities are considerable

-Many cities are police departments have also faced large judgements in response to the wrongdoings of officers

-No evidence to indicate lawsuits are a deterrent to errant police officers

Consent decrees?

-Being a target of the DOJ investigations

-Sometimes a police chief or mayor asks for an investigation and review

-Consent decrees focus on the department itself rather than the individual officer

-Compliance with consent decrees is expensive for cities and police departments

-Other costs include damage to department's reputation, reduction in morale, potentially the loss of good officers

Individual explanations of deviance?

-"Rotten-apple" argument: officer was deviant before hiring

-Development of a police personality (became deviant after hiring)

Possible predictors of deviance?

-Gender

-Age

-Education

-Race

-Military experience

-Academy performance

-Prior history of wrongdoing

Organizational explanations of deviance?

-Small work groups (microculture of unethical behavior)

-Perverse incentives (rewarded for taking short cuts, inflating arrest stats)

-Organizational culture (blue curtain of secrecy, noble cause corruption)

Response to "Rotten Apple"?

Body cameras

-Powerful tool to support citizens who allege brutality

-Cost of the cameras and data storage is considerable

-Invasion of privacy

-Rules regarding whether and when police should turn off the cameras

Responses to "Rotten Barrel"?

-Internal affairs model, civil service, and arbitration

-Civilian review/complaint boards

-Changing the culture

-Ethical leadership

Packer's crime control model?

-Views police as crime control agents

-Police are crime fighters

-Warrior type shit

Packer's due process model?

-Views police as public servants

-Guardian type shit

-Law enforcement is "owned" by all people

Blue curtain of secrecy?

Refers to police officers covering up the wrongdoing of peers