Law Enforcement Deviance
Law Enforcement Deviance Never before, had the city of Los Angeles been involved in a scandal like the one it faced within the department’s Rampart Area. Allegations of perjury, false arrest reports, evidence planting, police brutality, and even murder plagued the department. What started out as an attempt to stop the growing number of “gang related” crimes in the Rampart Area of Los Angeles, had turned into one of the worst scandals to disgrace the city and permanently tarnish the department’s reputation yet. Perhaps, the worst misconduct came from the Department’s managers who ignored warning signs and failed to provide leadership, oversight, management, and supervision to the unit (Rampart Review, 2000). The repercussions of this deviance by the LAPD will be felt for many years as the public struggles to regain trust and the department struggles to regain creditability. The use of excessive force and evidence planting are two forms of police deviance that are cited in the Rampart Independent Review. These acts of deviance are not exclusive to the LAPD, as there have been many incidences nationwide regarding the use of excessive force and tampering with or planting evidence by police. Excessive use of force continues to be a major problem today. One of the most notorious cases of excessive use of force by officers was the case involving Rodney King. The Rodney King case not only contained excessive use of force, but also the falsifying of police reports (Mangan, 2000). The LAPD’s officers and supervisors downplayed the injuries to King as minor scrapes and bruises. The officers involved in the beating reported that King attacked officers, resisted, and increased his level of resistance. The video tape, however, showed a much different story. King is seen in a defenseless position on his hands and knees as officers circle him and beat him repeatedly with their batons (Mangan, 2000). The Rampart CRASH officers routinely planted drugs,
References: Federal Bureau of Investigations (2008). Former New Haven Police Detective sentence to prison. Retrieved June 6, 2008, from http://newhaven.fbi.org Mangan, D. (2000). Police Brutality: The use of excessive force. Drury University. Retrieved June 6, 2008, from http://www.drury.edu Pollock, J. M. (2004). Ethics in crime and justice: Dilemmas and decisions (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. Rampart Independent Review Panel (2000). A report to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners concerning the operations, policies, and procedures of the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of the Rampart scandal. Retrieved June 6, 2008, from http://www. lacity.org