Brotherhood Of Corruption, Walking With The Devil, By Cyndi Banks

Police ethics training is a vital aspect needed to comprise a successful and principled police department. The required reading for a police ethics training course must be compelling and relatable for police officers to identify with the material and grasp its importance. Therefore, I would require police officers to read Brotherhood of Corruption, Walking with the Devil, chapter one: Introduction to the New Police Accountability in the book The New World of Police Accountability, and chapter three: Police Ethics: Use of Force, Investigations, Interrogations, and Lying in the Criminal Justice Ethics textbook by Cyndi Banks. All four of these readings cover a variety of topics that are essential for police officers to be knowledgeable of. The

Juan Juarez a former Chicago Police Officer wrote this book depicting his first hand account of the injustices his saw and took part of while a police officer. A prominent aspect of the book is his detailing of police brutality, often fueled by racial discrimination that occurred within the CPD. In one instance described by Juarez an officer, Franco, mistakenly identified an innocent man as a suspect solely due to race. Juarez said in reference to the officer, “he must not have had his radio on, or perhaps flat-out disregarded the information that we had everything under control. Franco grabbed the guy and landed a left-handed slap followed by a right cross to the jaw. But he wasn’t done just yet. He executed a leg sweep that brought the man down to the sidewalk. His final blow was a knee to the neck” (Juarez 139). The author was not okay with this misconduct but even he recalls an instance in which he was guilty of brutality as well. After apprehending a suspect who stole a bike Juarez stated, “I swung my right arm back and opened my hand…I screamed as my hand came down solidly on his left ear. I heard his teeth clatter as his head recoiled from the blow and he dropped to one

This book begins immediately with some shocking statistics that will allow the police officers in the ethics course to see just how prevalent the code of silence can be. Quinn reports, “only 39 percent of police officers believe fellow officers will report serious criminal violations involving the abuse of authority,” and “52,4 percent of police officers agreed, “It is not unusual for a police officer to turn a blind eye to improper conduct by other officers” (4). The book goes on to discuss why officers partake in the code of silence. A scenario given by the author describes an officer who reports to a domestic violence call and ends up being beaten by the offender. The offender would have killed the officer if it were not for the back up that arrived. The back-up officers resort to beating the suspect within inches of his life. The suspect survives, but does not remember the attack. The initial officer is questioned about what happened to her attacker and she responds by saying she did not see. This officer has now participated in the code of silence by not telling Internal Affairs about the excessive force used by her fellow officers (Quinn 14-18). This scenario shows how easy it can be for officers to abide by the code of silence and how the code of silence can perpetrate a cycle of violence among police officers when the believe fellow officers