POLICE INTEGRITY IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS: CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIRECTORATE POLICE OFFICERS’ PERCEPTIONS
KUZEY KIBRIS TÜRK CUMHURİYETİ’NDE POLİS MESLEK AHLAKI BÜTÜNLÜĞÜ: ADLİ POLİS MÜDÜRLÜĞÜ POLİS MENSUPLARININ ALGISI

Author : Osman KAYABAŞI
Number of pages : 509-528

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore police officers’ perceptions about police integrity in the TRNC Criminal Investigation Directorate. In this study, written consent was obtained from the TRNC Police Organization. The second version of the police integrity questionnaire, developed by Klockars and colleagues, was adapted for the TRNC context, and then administered to the police officers employed in the Criminal Investigation Directorate in December 2013. Survey data were transferred to and analysied with SPSS-20 statistical program. Descriptive analysis, such as mean, mode, percentage, and correlational and differences analysis, such as rank, paired-t test, chi-square test, and Spearman’s correlation were used in data analysis. According to the results of the survey, police officers evaluated the actions of not reporting the colleague-involved DUI accidents, striking a prisoner, failing to halt beating a prisoner, and the acceptance of free meals and gratuities as the least serious forms of police misconduct, which require the most lenient disciplinary sanctions, and the most likely to be covered by the code of silence. On the other hand, police officers evaluated theft from a crime scene, kickback, and the falsification of the official report as the most serious forms of police misconduct that require dismissal of the police officer, and lacking strong support by the code of silence. Respondents perceived their directorate’s disciplinary actions for misconduct by a supervisor as lenient, while they rated for the rest of the scenarios as fair. The strength of the code of silence were also measured. It was found that the code was closely upheld for the behaviors evaluated as the least serious, and most weakly followed for the behaviors evaluated as the most serious. The study revealed that more than a half of the police officers in the Criminal Investigation Directorate were unsure whether cover-up of police DUI accident, striking a prisoner, and failing to halt beating a child abuser behaviors violated the official rules.

Keywords

Police Integrity, Police Ethics, TRNC Police Organization, Criminal Investigation Directorate, Surve

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