Deck 11: Police Misconduct and Accountability

Question 1

All of the following were identified as elements of corrupt acts EXCEPT for ______.

A) they are forbidden by some law, rule, regulation, or ethical standard
B) they involve the misuse of the officer's position
C) some acts are frowned upon but not necessarily forbidden
D) they involve some actual or expected material reward or gain

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Police corruption involves all of the following EXCEPT for ______.

A) norms violated
B) degree of organization
C) police department reaction
D) familiar cooperation

Answer 2

D

Question 3

______ eaters are those officers who actively engage in corrupt activities.

A) Meat
B) Grass
C) Fruit
D) Vegetable

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The ______ formed in response to allegations of large-scale corruption amongst NYPD officers.

A) Mollen Commission
B) Knapp Commission
C) Lexow Commission
D) Wickersham Commission

Question 5

The Lexow Commission found that the corruption in NYPD was systematic and pervasive, a condition that it attributed to all of the following EXCEPT for ______.

A) misfeasance
B) nonfeasance
C) malfeasance
D) multifeasance

Question 6

Reforms in the early and middle 1900s emphasized the importance of ______ as a means of reducing corruption of all kinds.

A) professionalism
B) service
C) militarization
D) noble cause corruption

Question 7

Which of the following eras was considered to be the golden era for crooked police?

A) 1910s
B) 1920s
C) 1930s
D) 1940s

Question 8

Which of the following commission was formed to investigate allegations of misconduct, analyze the effectiveness of anticorruption mechanisms within the department, and offer recommendations for improvement?

A) Mollen Commission
B) Knapp Commission
C) Lexow Commission
D) Wickersham Commission

Question 9

Findings of the Mollen Commission include all of the following EXCEPT for ______.

A) corruption occurred primarily in crime-ridden precincts, populated predominantly by minority-group members
B) internal mechanisms responsible for uncovering and investigating misconduct were effective but not used
C) there existed a department-wide belief that the identification of corruption would cause the department administrators to retaliate for bringing discredit on the NYPD
D) the leadership structure of the department demonstrated no sense of commitment to rooting out corrupt practices

Question 10

Taking inappropriate action or intentionally giving incorrect information describes ______.

A) misfeasance
B) nonfeasance
C) malfeasance
D) multifeasance

Question 11

______ refers to the reluctance of honest, hard-working police officers to report misconduct committed by their peers.

A) Misfeasance
B) Nonfeasance
C) Malfeasance
D) Multifeasance

Question 12

______ is any intentional act that is based on either illegality or disregard of the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics or departmental policy.

A) Misfeasance
B) Nonfeasance
C) Malingering
D) Malfeasance

Question 13

Officer Perez has witnessed his partner taking large amounts of bribes from the local mob. He has yet to report it to his superiors. This is an example of ______.

A) misfeasance
B) nonfeasance
C) malingering
D) malfeasance

Question 14

When officers perjure themselves to cover misconduct they are committing ______.

A) misfeasance
B) nonfeasance
C) malingering
D) malfeasance

Question 15

Threatening witnesses or victims to keep them from registering complaints concerning misconduct is an example of ______.

A) misfeasance
B) nonfeasance
C) malingering
D) malfeasance

Question 16

The ______ provided insight into the systematic, narcotics-related corruption in the field of policing.

A) Knapp Commission
B) Gallup News Poll, 2011
C) Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics Online, 2012
D) U.S. GAO drug-related police corruption study report

Question 17

According to the 1998 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, police officers who are ______ are more susceptible to corrupt practices.

A) minorities
B) education
C) male
D) young

Question 18

According to a survey, the three crimes found to be the most significant in affecting officers' decisions to perjure themselves were ______.

A) sale of narcotics, rape, assault
B) bribes, assault, murder
C) robbery, sale of narcotics, assault
D) rape, assault, burglary

Question 19

Which of the following is an example of "othering"?

A) using racial slurs
B) seeing others as human
C) respecting others' dignity
D) not distinguishing between us versus them

Question 20

______ is the most widespread form of police misconduct; it includes a wide variety of unauthorized material inducements or gratuities, ranging from discounted clothing and meals to free alcoholic beverages and commercial sex.

A) Bribery
B) Shakedown
C) Kickback
D) Corruption of authority

Question 21

______ violate(s) department policy but do(es) not violate criminal law when they are offered voluntarily.

A) Kickback
B) Shakedowns
C) Gratuities
D) Bribery

Question 22

______ constitutes a type of police corruption and refers to the practice of obtaining goods, services, or money for business referrals by police officers.

A) Bribery
B) Shakedown
C) Kickback
D) Corruption of authority

Question 23

______ is a type of corruption that involves officers actively seeking and taking money or other valuables and personal services from offenders they have caught during the commission of a crime. Drug dealers, pimps, and motorists are among the favored targets for this practice.

A) Bribery
B) Shakedown
C) Kickback
D) Corruption of authority

Question 24

According to the text, all of the following seem to be favorite targets of shakedowns EXCEPT for ______.

A) drug dealers
B) motorists
C) arsonists
D) drug dealers

Question 25

Bribery is a type of ______.

A) misfeasance
B) nonfeasance
C) malingering
D) malfeasance

Question 26

Which of the following types of corruption is referred to as the fix?

A) perjury
B) kickbacks
C) shakedowns
D) bribery

Question 27

______ is a form of misconduct that pertains to police officers who steal money or other valuables when, for example, they are guarding a crime scene, as in the case of a burglary, or steal other such goods from unconscious, inebriated, or dead people.

A) Opportunistic theft
B) Shakedown
C) Kickback
D) Corruption of authority

Question 28

______ is the term describing the most egregious of all forms of misconduct. It involves police officers taking money or other valuables in exchange for their protection of criminal activities.

A) Bribery
B) Shakedown
C) Kickback
D) Protection of illegal activities

Question 29

In reference to the protection of illegal activities, the most common forms of criminal activity protected by police are narcotics trafficking, gambling, prostitution, the fencing or sale of stolen property, and ______ operations.

A) forgery
B) alcohol
C) auto theft
D) arson

Question 30

Which form of malfeasance pertains to situations in which officers overextend their legal authority by using more force than necessary to effect an arrest of, or to coerce information out of, individuals with whom they interact during the course of their duties?

A) excessive force
B) verbal overage
C) mistreatment malady
D) negative reinforcement

Question 31

Police officers terminated for misconduct such as excessive use of force who then travel to another jurisdiction and are rehired are referred to as ______.

A) rotten apples
B) gypsy cops
C) bad cops
D) wandering cops

Question 32

Research has found that ______ were more likely to experience nonfatal force during their most recent contact with police than other ethnic groups.

A) Hispanics
B) Blacks
C) Whites
D) Asians

Question 33

Research has found that of those who experienced force during their most recent contact, 75% described the ______ force as the most excessive.

A) verbal
B) physical
C) emotional
D) none of these

Question 34

Which of the following has been identified as one of the most significant impacts of misconduct?

A) distrust of the justice system
B) poor department culture
C) officer stress and burnout
D) increase in arrests

Question 35

Where would citizen complaints regarding psychological or emotional abuse by officers likely come from?

A) minority groups residing in suburban areas
B) minority groups residing in high-crime areas
C) minority groups residing in rural areas
D) minority groups residing adjacent to a police station

Question 36

Which of the following represents the most commonly noted complaints against officers by minority-group members?

A) hand gestures that can be deemed offensive
B) offensive language used
C) stopping and questioning them for no other apparent reason than race or ethnicity
D) rolling the eyes

Question 37

Observers have described racial profiling as most prevalent in all of the following EXCEPT for ______.

A) street-level crime
B) counterterrorism
C) immigration law enforcement
D) white-collar crime

Question 38

All of the following are noted to be a potential cause of misconduct among police officers at the individual level EXCEPT for ______.

A) lack of continuous training
B) absence of performance evaluations
C) incomplete or inadequate background checks
D) placement in an area not desired

Question 39

Which of the following is NOT cited as an agency-level cause of police corruption?

A) flaws in the individual character of the officer
B) peer endorsement
C) code of silence
D) continuous in-service training

Question 40

Many police television shows depict heroic, edgy police detectives capturing a perpetrator of a crime and using excessive force to obtain information from the suspect in order to save another person's life. What kind of corruption does this depict?

A) misfeasance
B) nonfeasance
C) noble cause corruption
D) meat eaters

Question 41

______ pertains to various situations in which officers circumvent the law to serve what they perceive to be the greater good.

A) Noble cause corruption
B) Excessive use of force
C) A shakedown
D) A kickback

Question 42

Which investigation into police corruption is cited for highlighting resultant negative publicity for the department as a reason why officers fear retaliation from administrators for reporting corruption?

A) the Knapp Commission
B) the Christopher Commission
C) the Mollen Commission
D) the Independent Police Review Authority

Question 43

Which of the following was identified as particularly difficult among the police?

A) whistleblowing
B) adhering to a code of silence
C) maintaining accountability
D) addressing misconduct

Question 44

For police departments that have exceedingly long waiting lists of qualified individuals aspiring to be police officers, which of the following tactics would be easiest to implement in order to reduce and prevent corruption?

A) use of Tasers
B) negative reinforcement
C) selective recruitment
D) positive reinforcement

Question 45

______ are specially trained officers who obtain intelligence regarding corrupt police practices.

A) Undercover brothers
B) Snoop dogs
C) Rat racers
D) Field associates

Question 46

Which of the following techniques is used to disrupt possible misconduct?

A) rotating personnel across shifts and geographic assignments
B) micro-managing all officers with the use of CSOs
C) widening recruitment
D) not hiring minorities or females

Question 47

Which of the following terms refers to the practice of identifying officers whose behavior is problematic, intervening to correct the problem behavior, and monitoring the intervention of those who have received it?

A) weed-eating
B) early intervention program
C) apple picking
D) termination

Question 48

All of the following were identified as ways to improve relationships with the public EXCEPT for ______.

A) implementing ride-along programs
B) creating citizen police academies
C) using a crime-fighting strategy
D) creating neighborhood watch programs

Question 49

All of the following are functions performed by internal affairs divisions within police departments EXCEPT for ______.

A) conducting all background checks of officers prior to their hire
B) prosecuting officers who appear to be responsible for serious misconduct
C) receiving and investigating complaints of police misconduct
D) collecting intelligence on police misconduct within a department and sharing it with administrators

Question 50

The most significant impact of police misconduct is the suspicion and distrust that results.

Question 51

Meat eater is a term coined by the Knapp Commission to describe an officer who engages widely in corrupt and unlawful practices during the performance of his or her duties.

Question 52

Grass eaters is a term coined by the Knapp Commission to refer to officers who engage in minor acts of corrupt practices (e.g., acceptance of gratuities) and passively accept the wrongdoings of other officers.

Question 53

Corruption occurs when a police officer acts in a manner that places his or her personal gain ahead of duty, resulting in the violation of police procedures, criminal law, or both.

Question 54

The Lexow Commission is an investigative group appointed by a coalition of concerned citizens and good-government groups.

Question 55

Frank Serpico brought to light police corruption in New York City, and the Serpico Commission investigation that followed uncovered widespread corruption among officers of all ranks.

Question 56

Some departments were built on corrupt foundations.

Question 57

The Mollen Commission was created by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1994. The charge of the committee was to investigate allegations of misconduct, analyze the effectiveness of anticorruption mechanisms within the department, and offer recommendations for improvement.

Question 58

The reluctance to report wrongdoing is referred to as malfeasance.

Question 59

Malfeasance refers to the reluctance of most police officers to report wrongdoings committed by their coworkers.

Question 60

Misfeasance refers to taking inappropriate action or intentionally given incorrect information.

Question 61

Drug-related police corruption differs from other forms of police misconduct.

Question 62

Perjury can become accepted as an inherent part of the job.

Question 63

Members of minority groups (both racial and behavioral), particularly in high-crime areas, report that psychological or emotional abuse is rare in their encounters with the police.

Question 64

The police sometimes label those who are perceived as outsiders; this is referred to as "othering."

Question 65

The corruption of authority is the most widespread category of police misconduct.

Question 66

Accepting any type of gratuity is considered a violation of criminal law.

Question 67

Kickbacks refer to the practice of obtaining goods, services, or money for business referrals by police officers.

Question 68

Shakedowns occur when officers take money or other valuables and personal services from offenders they have caught during the commission of a crime.

Question 69

Bribery is a form of nonfeasance.

Question 70

Protection of illegal activities is one of the most egregious forms of misconduct.

Question 71

Excessive use of force is not the same thing as police brutality and should be considered different by citizens and police alike.

Question 72

The U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) is responsible for maintaining the national database on police corruption.

Question 73

Peer endorsement is the most critical factor influencing police officers' decision to report misconduct.

Question 74

According to the 2005 NIJ study regarding police use of force described in your text, very few respondents reported the use of force or threat of use of force in their encounters with the police.

Question 75

One of the most significant impacts of misconduct is to increase the amount of suspicion and distrust of the justice system.

Question 76

Members of minority groups report that psychological or emotional abuse is a routine part of their encounters with the police.

Question 77

Racial profiling is prevalent in white-collar crimes.

Question 78

The motivation for police corruption may be related to economic conditions.

Question 79

Noble cause corruption cases involving life-and-death situations happen often throughout an officer's career.

Question 80

Payoffs are a form of misconduct pertaining to various situations in which officers circumvent the law in order to serve what they perceive to be the greater good. This is also akin to the philosophy of "the ends justify the means."