Use of police knowledge and police intelligence in acts of corruption: A case study

In recent years law enforcement's war against crime has led to important ad vancement in the training of investigators (specialized training), criminal intelligence gathering and information storage (computerization). The prod uction of specific knowledge and the concentration of criminal intelligence may represent a source of criminal opportunities for police officers who a re vulnerable to corruption. This paper focuses on criminal opportunities o ffered to corruptible police officers, and more precisely, on the use of po lice knowledge and criminal intelligence by corrupt police officers. Twelve cases of police corruption in the province of Quebec throughout the past 3 0 years are examined. Findings show that some corrupt police officers do in deed use their access to knowledge and criminal intelligence to commit corr uption offenses. Such practices were found to be divided amongst cases in w hich the acts involved a single officer and those which required extensions into the criminal milieu.