¶ … Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Scandal
The Rampart scandal that rocked the LAPD in the 1990s is one of the most serious examples of modern police corruption and the most shocking since the Knapp Commission era of the NYPD in New York City two decades earlier (Delattre, 2006). The multiple reasons eventually identified as being responsible for the evolution of the problem included excessive latitude given to the CRASH tactical unit at the center of the scandal and an organization-wide culture of corruption, numerous instances of serious criminal activity such as murder and bank robbery, and supervisory involvement in perpetuating and covering up the situation (Williams, 2001).
Even in the best of circumstances, modern police administrators routinely encounter tendencies among police personnel to develop informal procedures in the field that may violate formal organizational policies and procedures (Delattre, 2006). By nature, police work is insular and prone to an "us vs. them" attitude between patrol officers and citizens and between first-line police personnel and police administrators. Frequently, veteran officers with no formal authority over other officers in the field teach new officers the "way we do things" and to "forget what you learned in the academy."
The phenomenon is pervasive enough that even the most dedicated and professional police supervisors and administrators have to work continually to promote high ethical standards. However, where police supervisors and administrators condone fundamental ethical and legal violations by police officers, the most likely outcome is a completely compromised police organization (Reese, 2000). All the other factors contributed but the involvement of supervisors and administrators was the most significant cause of the Rampart scandal.
References
Delattre, E. (2006). Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing. Washington, DC:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.
Reese, R. "The Rise and Fall of a Public Leader: The Case of Willie Williams and the LAPD" Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, Vol. 6 No.1; 2000.
Williams, G. "Incubating Monsters? Prosecutorial Responsibility for the Rampart
Scandal" the Loyola Law Journal, Vol. 34; 2001.
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