One Hundred Seventy Accounts
By : Mya Reid
Police Sexual Misconduct
OnE HUnDreD & SEvENtY...There was a total of 170 counts of police sexual misconduct between 2007 and 2013. Philadelphia's Police Chief Commissioner Richard Ross’s career was only one of many officers' careers which were ended due to police sexual misconduct in the past decade. But unlike most of the others, his was widely broadcasted rather than kept in the dark.
Police sexual misconduct is often considered a hidden crime that routinely goes unreported. Research on police sexual misconduct undeniably tells us that it is a systemic problem, meaning that their overall system is corrupt. Police sexual misconduct is a term used to describe many actions from sexual harassment to extortion to forcible rape by police officers. Over the time period of a 10-year data collection, it was concluded that a police officer was accused of an act involving sexual misconduct at least every five days. In most incidents, the field report involved : motorists, late teens early 20’s, young people in job-shadowing programs, students, victims of violence, and informants. In more than 60 percent of the cases reviewed, the accused officer was convicted of a crime or faced different consequences.
In a second study financed by the National Institute of Justice, there were more than 6,700 officer arrests nationwide over a seven year period. Stinson, a former police officer turned professor, found out that half of those arrests were for sexual misconduct incidents involving minors. Cato Institute also did a review in 2010 and concluded that sexual misconduct is placed second for most frequently reported form of police misconduct and of course excessive force placed first. In most instances, the females that come forward and press charges are retaliated against for doing so even after settling previous sexual harassment lawsuits against the city.
In most cases, they´re suspended for 5 days or more. In other cases, they're fired and some have to attend mandatory harassment training sessions. In July 2018, Kenney responded to the situation with an executive order expanding the definitions of the categories of conduct prohibited, requiring that all employees and supervisors receive training, and improving how investigations are conducted. The executive order includes a requirement for annual reviews though they have yet to release the documents receipts for public viewing.
Why Should You Care?
You should care about this issue because a. It's just human decency but if that's not enough image your mother, sister, daughter, cousin, some female in your life that you care about immensely. Them becoming an officer only to have to be degraded, ran threw the mud by the people that are supposed to have her back, her unit, her back up in a life or death situation. Imagine how some women go to work and not only are disrespected verbally but are sexually assaulted or raped. She feels having to get up everyday to go to a job that she wanted so badly, it’s her dream, but it's a nightmare because she gets no respect. Rather than imagining, put yourself in their shoes and see if you’d stand tall or fold.