Racial minorities, however, are not the only targets; in fact Amnesty International recently reported a serious pattern of police misconduct and brutality—including abuses that amount to torture and ill treatment—against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals (Amnesty International, 2006). Findings by Amnesty International suggest that police tend to target individuals who do not conform to gender stereotypes that dictate “appropriate” masculine and feminine behavior. Specifically, transgender people in particular experience some of the most serious cases of police brutality by being subject to sexual, verbal and physical abuse, inappropriate and illegal searches to determine the individual’s “true” sex, and even a failure to protect these transgender individuals from abuse while in detention (2006). Brutality and abuse should never be tolerated by police officers, and especially when the victims seem to be those who are most vulnerable—the poor minorities of society.

Conclusion

 The issue of police brutality must be acknowledge otherwise the problem will continue to escalate. Agencies responsible for investigating the claims made be citizens need to take their work more serious and establish severe punishments for crimes of police abuse. At the same time, the silent code must be broken and police officers need to realize that punishing those responsible for crimes of abuse needs to be more important than keeping loyalty among their fellow officers. Additionally, the targeting of minorities and poor individuals must be brought to an end. According to Human Rights Watch “external pressures are essential to force police administrators to improve accountability, but police brutality will only subside once higher-ranking police officials judge their subordinates - and are judged themselves - on their efforts to provide sufficient and consistent oversight” (1998).

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According to Human Rights Watch, in a study they conducted it was concluded that efforts to dissuade complainants have become extreme in some cities, and officers are thus striking back by filing complaints against their own complaints. Efforts by officers have reached such a level that recently officers have even filed civil lawsuits against plaintiffs and attorneys. In Seattle, the police officers’ union filed defamation lawsuits against six citizens who had filed complaints that were not sustained by the Internal Investigations Section of the police department in 1994 and 1995. In the six months following this retaliation, there was a drop of almost 75 percent in citizen complaints (1998).

A national survey conducted by the Police Foundation found that the majority of officers feel that is not unusual for them to turn a “blind eye” to improper conduct by other fellow officers. It was found that six out of 10 officers admitted that even when it came to reporting serious criminal violations involving abuse of power by other officers they do not always report them (Alpert & Dunham, 2004). Police departments as a whole are characterized with a certain degree of secrecy that aids to the concept of brutality. “Secrecy is loyalty, for it represents, sticking with a group, and its maintenance carries with it a profound sense of participation…Secrecy is also solidarity, for which it represents a common front against the outside world and consensus in at least one goal (Jacoby, 1988). This code of secrecy functions as a social bond among the police, by giving them something in common (Niederhoffer & Blumberg, 1990). As a whole, is important to recognize that within police departments officers work together like family and unfortunately many times these same family ties allow for more serious crimes to be concealed.

Minorities as Targets

 Virtually all police departments subscribe to the principle of equality, however, this is not the reality when it comes to victims of police brutality. Today, race continues to play a central role in police brutality in the United States. In all major cities in the United Sates, the study conducted by Human Rights Watch found that police have subjected minorities to all types of discriminatory treatment and have physically abused minorities while using racial epithets. “Mistreatment may be non-violent harassment and humiliation, such as allegations of racial profiling in which drivers are temporarily detained often for driving in certain areas or for driving certain types of cars” (Shielded From Justice, 1998). The 1991 Christopher Commission report and the 1992 St. Clair Commission report, which focused on Boston’s police department, showed that race still plays a central role in the use of excessive force. The St. Clair Commission report found that during the period studied, 50 percent of complainants in the sample group were African-American, while 26 percent of Boston’s population was African-American (Shielded from Justice, 1998).

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Flawed System of Reporting

 Police brutality has been kept underreported throughout the years in part because of the lack of research available to develop an efficient system of punishment. According to the US Department of Justice “the incident of wrongful use of force by police is unknown in part because research on the topic is critically needed to determine reliability, validity, and how often transgressions of use-of-force powers occurs” (1999). This way, the lack of research available is in part the fault of many Citizen Review Agencies whose role is to monitor and, in some cases, investigate cases of excessive force, but are under-funded by city officials, undermined by police officers who refuse to cooperate with them, under attack by police unions and others, and under-utilized by the public (“Shielded From Justice”, 1998).

A perfect example of a flawed system of reporting and weak performance from local agencies could be seen in a study conducted by Human Rights Watch in the state of California which showed that even after officers were exposed through citizen’s complaints and their behavior was clear, action was not be taken unless an extreme incident took place. In a report conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department during the aftermath of the Rodney King shooting, it was found that ten percent of the officers involved in the shooting were responsible for 33.2 percent of all use-of-force incidents. The Commission responsible for the study was able to identify 44 such officers who were not disciplined or warned previously about the behavior despite the fact that they were the subjects of numerous citizen complaints (Fighting Police Abuse, 1997).  Police officials must ensure that police officers are punished when they violate administrative rules, while state and federal prosecutors must prosecute criminal acts committed by officers, and where appropriate, complicity by their superior officers, however, if effective agencies and organizations are not established to overlook the actions of police officers the problems with police brutality will continue (Shielded From Justice, 1998).

Lack of Cooperation from Police Officers

 Filing a complaint about an incident with a police officer is difficult because the complainants might be both witnesses and/or criminals who become intimidated at the position of power held by their oppressor and even fear the thought of filing any type of charges because of effect that their actions could have. Most of the time complainants who attempt to have their voice herd are met by fellow police officers who are not very happy to receive a complaint about their colleague (“Shielded From Justice”, 1998). In fact, police officers don’t like to have “complaints” filed on them, nor do they like for citizens to ask for copies of complaints made against themselves or fellow police officers. For some reason police officers think they do no wrong and if they do, the public doesn’t need to be aware of it (Police Crimes 2006).

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Police Brutality and Abuse in Our Society:

Contributing Factors and the Victims Who are Targeted

Abstract

Police brutality is one of the most serious human rights violations in the U.S and it continues to be underreported because of barriers to accountability. Factors that protect police officers include, flaws in the system of reporting, the lack of testimonial evidence available from fellow police officers, and a corrupted system of punishment for such offenses. In fact, those agencies responsible for investigating the claims are not taking the problem seriously enough which leads many police officers not to be held accountable for their actions and accordingly victims find no purpose in continuing with the filing of charges because they will be eventually dropped. Unfortunately, the most common victims are minorities and poor citizens who do not have the monetary capabilities or credibility to pursue with further actions against their police abusers. Specifically, during recent years gay and lesbians and immigrants have become special targets of police abuse, which includes anything from beatings to sexual harassment. 

 
Introduction

Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of force by police officers and covers a wide range of abuses which include anything from the excessive use of force, different types of assaults, verbal attacks and both verbal and physical threat. Police misconduct can also extent into a variety of subsections which consist of false arrest, intimidation, racial profiling, political repression, surveillance abuse, sexual abuse, and police corruption (“Police Brutality” 2001). According to data from the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, between 1996 and 2000, civilians annually registered between 3269 and 5174 allegations of officers’ improper use of force and between 6564 and 8919 allegations of abuse of authority or of offensive or discourteous language or behavior (Cooper, 2004). Regardless of these figures, however, abuse or over use of power by police officers has always been underreported and today the problem has escalated in part due to high crime rates across the United Sates. A series of factors (explained in the following paragraphs) are responsible for the lack of accountability that allow officers to abuse their power.

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Lances say the hardest part is the end. When the end comes you have to get yourself mentally and emotionally prepared to either break someone’s heart or ruin their marriage. I’ve gotten used to it now. This part sort of becomes black and white at times. The most unusual Confrontation I had was when the woman brought her husband to the unveiling of my investigation. I did feel real bad at this particular one because the person who the husband was cheating with was the woman’s sister and his secretary. I do call most of my clients back because I do know that the information I provide is devastating. Also when you call them back and ask them general questions about how they’re doing you’re more likely to get more clients because they believe you care and is generally concerned.

 He goes on to say that he feels in a  50 years this will be one of those fields that will become obsolete due to the internet. Now with different  technology people can do there own search because when husbands or wives do there infidelity thing they leave a paper trail. When you leave a paper trail your generally caught.

 Private investigators have some what of a dirty job. They have to unveil schemes, infidelity, and fraud. People never lead you on a straight path so always be prepared for the worse. Work under the watchful eyes and always be able to camouflage and never wear anything that will get you caught. Never let someone who has been caught by you get under your skin because they have been caught. Those are just a few of the sayings Lance conducts himself by. Lance Is currently testifying in  a divorce case right now and leaves me with these final words: Private Investigation field is a way I have become a Criminal investigator without being a police officer, my life isn’t on the line as much, and I don‘t have to deal with arresting someone.

 Furthermore the aspect of Private investigators that cheaters portray is not accurate. They only show about one day of investigations and mostly at a resident or a public place. But what about those places you can’t see and the extent you have to go to not get caught by your target. The Private investigator knows a lot of people and have different looks. But always keep in mind that Private investigators are not bad just the people who they have to investigate.
 

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