‘Blue walls,’ ‘grey areas’ and ‘cleanups’: Issues in the control of police corruption in England and Wales

Abstract

This paper examines issues concerned with police corruption and its control in England and Wales. The topic of defining police corruption is addressed, some current areas of risk are described and anti-corruption strategies, particularly those pursued by the London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), are examined. What appears qualitatively and quantitatively different in the approach of services such as the MPS and Merseyside Police is the use of an adequately resourced, dedicated anti-corruption unit. This strategy has been buttressed by preventative measures involving management/administration and ethics/training. Dedicated units have been controversial, and preventative measures raise questions concerning evaluation. Nevertheless the approach to corruption bears comparison with that adopted by other major police services in other jurisdictions and represents a break with previous and unsuccessful efforts at corruption control in major police forces in England and Wales.

A multivariate model of police deviance: examining the nature of corruption, crime and misconduct

“…A 1998 American report submitted by the General Accounting Office, which studied drug related police corruption, stated that police enforcing laws against all forms of vice were open to opportunities for corruption. Both Dunnighan and Norris (1998) and Moran (2005) also provided support for the factor of 'opportunity'. Dunnighan and Norris (1998) reported that the majority of officers see rule bending as an essential component of running informers.…”

“…Dunnighan and Norris (1998) reported that the majority of officers see rule bending as an essential component of running informers. Moran (2005) stated that opportunities for corruption are continuously provided in certain areas of policing due to context. He proposed that the specific context of certain activities, combined with the policing of those activities and the development of criminal groups, historically provides for the development of certain forms of police corruption.…”

Measuring Multi-Agency South Wales Police Corruption: Implications of Evidence from Within

“…Consequently, this informs the context and pervading culture within which the present study was conducted. Exploring police corruption is empirically socially different from other professions (Moran, 2005), and a qualitative inquiry appears to engender more effective illumination of the issues underpinning police corruption. As most indicators of corruption in the police force are subjective indicators (Lambsdorff, 2006) the research orientation therefore needs to discriminate more effectively the various issues (Hill, Thompson & Williams, 1997;Walsh, White & Young, 2008).…”

“…Consequently, utilising policing surveys (Ede & Legosz, 2002) does very little as they project unsupported and unsubstantiated opinion lacking in authoritive scope, reliability and significance (Klockars, et al, 2000). Further, the literature neglects to research the application of the organisational injustice concept (Trinkner, Tyler & Goff, 2016) nor social learning theory (Chappell & Piquero, 2004) to help illuminate the level and prevalence of police misconduct (Moran, 2005;Brown, 2006). However, much research cannot be done effectively because of demonstrated lack of access under the notion of "security" to real data collected by police during their inquiries and the application of internal decision-making processes (Kane, 2002).…”

Dark networks : criminal collaboration in Australian police forces

“…Research on criminal networks is well established in the criminology literature but has received minimal consideration from a social network theoretical approach, and few studies have done so on an empirical basis (Moran, 2005;Morselli & Tremblay, 2004). Accordingly, this thesis makes numerous theoretical and practical contributions.…”