Knowing that there are 6 serious crimes that police officers can get away with will surely give any citizen a great concern when it comes to safety.
Police officers are the main barrier between the crime and well-being of the common people. They should be the ones protecting the people from crime and available for help, since that’s what they are paid for. Unfortunately, there are always some exceptions.
The news about police brutality has been swamping the media lately. Some members of police forces started abusing their power and use force even when they shouldn’t have. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. Police officers can use their job to get away with some serious crimes. It seems that equality before the law doesn’t apply to them and that those who are supposed to enforce it are “more equal” than the rest of us. As if we don’t have enough crimes already, especially in states that have highest domestic violence rates in America,
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When a police officer acts as an abuser, his partner doesn’t have much space for seeking justice. Police officers usually enjoy a respectable reputation in their communities, and it is always unlikely that people will believe that such authority has done something wrong.
There is more. If police officers are accused of breaking the law, they often continue with doing their job like nothing even happened. Then, they delay going to court; the investigation is slow and at the end, a very small percent of cases ends with a conviction. In the rare cases, when the police officer gets suspended for breaking the law, it’s usually because of the media pressure.
To find the 6 serious crimes that police officers can get away with, we used a research done by New York Times. They investigated the cases where police officers were accused of breaking the law but kept their job, getting away with the crime. The research showed the most common serious crimes police officers got away with.
6. Drug use
It seems that police officers are familiar with drugs more than they should be. Drug use should not be overlooked in any circumstance, especially when it comes to police officers. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, since 1% of police members who were using drugs, are still on the street, working.
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5. Theft
Theft was always an easy way for people to get something they want without actually working for it. It looks like police officers are tempted by it as well, but managed to get away with it. If we just take into consideration the cases where it was proven that police officers were stealing, in 7% of them they got away with it.
4. False statement
Since the police officers are the ones leading the investigations and documenting the crimes, their words sometimes can be a crucial evidence. This power is in some cases abused by the police officers, who can give a false statement about the important elements of the case, thus leading to the conviction of someone innocent or letting go someone who is guilty. It looks like this isn’t a big deal, since 22% of the police officers accused of giving false statements were able to keep their jobs.
3. Assault
In the intro of our 6 serious crimes that police officers can get away with, we mentioned unnecessary use of force by police officers. This can happen during the arrest or even when a police officer is off duty. Knowing that they have power given by the government, police officers can easily engage in assaulting someone for private reasons and justify it. In 26% of the cases where police officers are accused of assault for which they didn’t suffer any consequences and were able to remain on the job.
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2. Domestic violence
Domestic violence has become a widespread crime over the years. The main problem for finding and convicting the abusers is victim’s fear. Domestic violence includes an emotional and verbal abuse besides the physical one. The victim is often threatened by the greater harm and is forced to keep his or her mouth shut. Police officers are especially keen on using this method. Even when the victim speaks out, that doesn’t mean the abuser will get what they deserve. The proof for this is the fact that 28% of police officers accused of domestic violence kept their jobs.
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1. D.U.I.
Driving under the influence can have devastating consequences. The drunk driver isn’t just a danger for himself, but for anyone else who is on the road. From these 6 serious crimes that police officers can get away, D.U.I. is one of the most widespread and has the highest bar of tolerance. 29% of police officers accused of D.U.I. are still working like nothing happened. This has become a great problem, since police officers should be role models for common people and with behavior like this, they are far from it.
