Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Corruption and discredit have been consubstantial elements to the police organization. The purpose of this paper is to analyze police corruption by adopting an organizational stance. The text reviews three basic questions: what has been the position of the authorities in the face of corruption? What is the place it occupies in the priorities of government? And what actions have been implemented to face it? To address these questions, the conceptual framework of organization therory are used, specifically the instrumental, cultural and institutional perspectives. The operative hypothesis is that corruption in the police is part of a political, social, economic and cultural context where formal rules are no more than general frameworks from which to negotiate, bargain, extort and collude. The method adopted is qualitative, using information from in-depth semi-direct interviews with former police officers and former officials of the Ministry of Public Security. The systematic review of the press, official documentation and specialized literature was also carried out. The conclusions point out that in the fight against corruption, instrumental strategies and recipies from abroad have been privileged, bypassing the values and organizational customs locally developed.