Pros and Cons of Police Gratuities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pros and Cons of Police Gratuities - Essay Example   According to Richard Kania, there are some particular situations where police officers should be encouraged to accept gratuities. He supports his opinion on the fact that individuals who offer police officers gratuities do so as rewards, but not with the intension of corrupting the police force (Barker 47). He also gives an example of a cook who offered him a free meal in exchange of frequent visits he made to his (cook) establishment. Police officers are routinely obligated to provide such services to the community, and they should not be rewarded at all for providing such services, however; the cook felt a sense of indebtedness to Kania for security services he offered, and the cook’s response was a personal one: a free meal (Barker 51). The problem he noted is that some of his colleagues when offered such gratuities will make it a routine to collect them on a daily basis. This turns out to be the beginning of corrupting the police system. Therefore, police gratuities th at are offered with the aim of rewarding the officers for hard work should be accepted, while those offered with the aim of corrupting the police system should not be accepted. Accepting gratuities is also a way of integrating fresh police officers into the police force system. John Kleinig notes that the issue of police corruption is highly emphasized during police training, therefore, officers who accept gratuities may feel that they are already corrupted, and there is no reason why they must not accept gratuities from the public.