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3 Police Prac. & Res. 7 (2002)

handle is hein.journals/gppr3 and id is 1 raw text is: SRoutledge Police Practice and Research, 2002, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 7-19 R1aorma&Fndsup CORRUPTION AND THE BLUE CODE OF SILENCE JEROME H. SKOLNICK NYU School of Law, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012, USA (Received June 2001; In final form September 2001) This paper examines the 'Blue Code of Silence' and its contribution to police corruption. After offering evidence for the existence of such a code, the paper locates the origins of the code in the work and culture of policing. The paper also examines cases, commission reports and an original case study to understand how the code is reinforced. Based on 'participant observation' research of the New York County Prosecutor's Official Corruption Unit, the paper also illustrates how the code impedes investigations by police overseers. Finally, the paper discusses various measures to address the code of silence. Keywords: Police corruption; Code of silence; Police culture Like criminal law itself, the 'Blue Code of Silence' is a normative injunction, but an unwritten one. Sometimes called a blue wall, curtain, or cocoon of silence, it is embedded in police subculture. At its best, the feelings of loyalty and brotherhood sustaining the 'Code of Silence' may facilitate policing and protect police against genuine threats to safety and well-being (Kleinig, 2000: 7). Yet the same code of loyalty and brotherhood can, as a 'Code of Silence' (hereafter Code), sustain an oppositional criminal subculture protecting the interests of police who violate the criminal law. Such an unrecorded code has been noted as a feature of policing across continents, wherever scholars or commissions of inquiry have studied police corruption. For example, major investigations into police corruption in the United States - the Knapp (1973) and Mollen (1994) Commissions in New York and the Christopher Commission in Los Angeles (1991) - have all singled out the Code as an obstruction to their inquiry into police corruption or excessive force. Such a Code has also been observed by the Fitzgerald inquiry in Queensland (1989), by the Wood Royal Commission in New South Wales (1997) and is discussed by Maurice Punch in his studies of scandals in New York, London and Amsterdam (Punch, 1985: 3-5). Since a Code is found in investigations of police corruption across three continents, I shall assume that the Code is an embedded feature of police culture generally and shall address questions relating to it: 1. What is the etiology of the Code? 2. How is the Code reinforced? 3. How does the Code impede investigations? 4. Are there measures of accountability that can address the Code and reduce corruption and brutality? ISSN 1561-4263 print © 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/15614260290011309

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