Why is it getting harder to find an honest cop?

[ASEAN NOW News]

In the past, most of the stories of dishonest cops were confined mainly to Movies and TV series.

 

However, recently more than 5,000 police officers have been dismissed from the service because of an intensified internal cleansing program of the Philippine National Police (PNP) since the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte started.

 

file photo

 

PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said in a statement sent to the media on Sunday that the latest data as of March 2022 show a total of 5,599 police officers, 714 are involved in illegal drug-related cases, have been sacked since July 2016.

 

Others participated in cases ranging from grave misconduct, serious irregularities, and other criminal activities while some members of the police force were meted with disciplinary sanctions for administrative offenses and involvement in irregularities.

 

Over in Thailand, there are over a thousand disciplinary cases in the pipeline right now, Maj. Gen. Ukrit Srisuakham said in a recent interview.

 

“I can’t really tell the progress of each individual case or how many cases have been found guilty since there are so many of them.”

 

Many are dealt with internally with those officers transferred to other regions.

 

Contrary to widespread belief, a “transfer to inactive post” does not officially count as a punishment either, so many get off their dismissal easily.

 

As people’s interests and concerns on public safety have risen in Southeast Asia, academia has witnessed the growth of public management research on police corruption in the region.

 

Little effort has been made to systematically analyse police corruption studies in Southeast Asia.

 

The most common forms of corruption were making false reports and committing perjury, protecting illegal gambling, theft of drugs on the street, theft of seized property, receiving discounts on purchases, and selling information about police operations.

 

Global issue

 

Respondents to the Global Corruption Barometer in 2014 stated that, on a scale of 1-5 (5 being extremely corrupt), police corruption was at 3.2.

 

11% of respondents surveyed felt police corruption had increased since 2011, 51% felt it had decreased.

What causes police corruption?

 

A culture of corruption arises primarily from failures in four key areas:

(a) recruitment, training, and promotion.

(b) resources, such as pay and equipment.

(c) systems of accountability within departments, courts, and the law.

and (d) cultural traditions that inhibit the development of professional police standards.

 

Certainly, all the Worlds police forces spend vast amounts to deal with corruption within their forces.

 

The Philippines with its drug culture is in a hard and dangerous position, and it is not surprising low paid police officers are prime targets for corruption from the drug cartels.

 

It is unfortunately a situation that is likely never to go away completely.

 

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