Officers and Men - Occupational Culture, Inter-Rank Antagonism, and the Investigation of Corruption (From Control in the Police Organization, P 227-250, 1983, Maurice Punch, ed. - See NCJ-88943)

• NCJ Number: 88954
• Author(s): M Punch
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 24 pages
• Sale Source: MIT Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Solidarity and secrecy among police govern relationships within the police organization as well as between the police and the public, as demonstrated in this study of a Dutch police department.

Abstract

A corruption scandal associated with the Amsterdam police exposed the latent conflict between lower and senior ranks. There was secrecy and solidarity within police units, but it was against higher ranks and investigators. General police solidarity and secrecy were broken as officers took their grievances to the press. Internal relationships were characterized by bitter feuds, suspicion, distrust, threats, and leaking of documents; some units were paralyzed by dissent, and others were near mutiny. The conflict generated by the corruption scandal crystallized the inherent dichotomy between the interests of senior officers and lower ranks. This undermined the corruption investigation and subsequent attempts to impose organizational change. Overall, the findings do not support the image of a police occupational culture permeated by solidarity, consensus, and unbreachable, unified defenses against outside scrutiny. The pattern revealed in the department studied is that of semiautonomous and conflicting units and inter-rank relationships characterized by suspicion and mistrust. This complicates internal investigations, because units within a department will respond to internal investigations much as the police organization as a whole generally responds to outside investigations. Six notes are provided.