Police officers abusing their power and they target colored people because …show more content…
Police officers must “break the code of silence among the rank and file and encourage cops to police themselves. A corrupt, racist or brutal cop will abstain from misconduct only when he looks at the cop next to him and believes that the officer will blow the whistle if he hits the suspect. The police value system is what permits the kind of behavior that gets bad headlines” (McNamara). A corrupted, racist cop would not be able to continue their corruption and abuse of power if they know that their partner and other police officers will enlighten others of the corrupted cop’s crimes and they will be rewarded for telling the truth. There was a study done by Ronald, Weitzer and Tuch A. Steven from Oxford University, on a recent national survey data on American citizens’ views of police bias and their personal experiences. This includes how individuals and neighborhoods are treated differently, police prejudice, and racial profiling. Depending on the citizens’ race, personal experiences with police discrimination, and their exposure to the reports of incidents of police misconduct on news media. This study mostly …show more content…
Police officers are at risk for high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide, according to the researchers at University at Buffalo who studied cops for decades. There was a study mainly done by researcher, John M. Violanti, Ph.D, at University at Buffalo that includes psychological factors such as depression and PTSD, levels of stress, risk of suicide, and the effects of a night shift of being awake all night. He concluded that due to the high stress work environment with factors of danger, high demands, human misery and exposure to death that police officers are in, the most significant this case should be taken. The data shows that women working daytime shifts are likely to be depressed and have thoughts of suicide due to feeling uneasy and more stressed from being in a negative environment full of conflict and socially isolated in a male occupation. On the other hand, men working night time shifts are have the same mental illnesses due to the loneliness and not having backup. As for cops having to stay awake all night instead of sleeping like our biological clocks tell them to, it can affect judgment and decision making. There are 4 major effects of being a police officer: chronic stress, family life, social isolation, and public perception according