The challenges facing the Chicago Police Department today are not new, nor are they unique to this city. The problem reaches back as far as the establishment of the first organized police forces in the United States. Corruption has taken many forms and has continued to plague the police departments of nearly every major city.

Police corruption may change form over time, but its roots are firmly planted in American history. In The Development of the American Police: An Historical Overview, Uchida notes that "if there is a common theme that can be used to characterize the police in the 19th Century, it is the large-scale corruption that occurred in most police departments across the United States" (Uchida, 1993). In Forces of Deviance: Understanding the Dark Side of Policing, Kappeler, Sluder, and Alpert point out that corruption among police is not new or peculiar to the late 20th century. "To study the history of police is to study police deviance, corruption and misconduct." (Kappeler et al., 1994.)

Since 1995, ten police officers from Philadelphia's 39th District have been charged with planting drugs on suspects, shaking down drug dealers for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and breaking into homes to steal drugs and cash.

By 1994, 27 Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and one Los Angeles police officer had been convicted of skimming millions of dollars of drug money while they were members of an elite anti-narcotics unit. A convicted deputy stated that they stole $60 million seized in drug raids in one two-year period alone.

Miami has been rocked with a series of drug-related corruption cases. In its most notorious case, the "Miami River Cops Scandal," seventeen police officers stole cash and millions of dollars in drugs from drug dealers, sold the drugs, and caused at least three deaths. The scandal resulted in the arrest, suspension or punishment of more than 100 police officers.

hile corruption has been a consistent and pervasive problem in law enforcement, the nature of corrupt activity has changed dramatically over the years. The t

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