When the police exceed their authority and powers in order to achieve apparently legitimate ends, it is called ‘noble cause corruption’. This phrase, which entered the lexicon with Edwin Delattre’s influential book Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing (1989), has classical origins — in Plato’s Republic the philosopher-king justifies the use of noble lies in order to advance the good of the city. But whereas for Plato, the noble cause does not justify anything more than minor deception, police today indulge in flagrant abuse of human rights.

On the face of it, noble cause corruption is very different from what’s generally referred to as corruption. It is committed in the name of good ends, corruption that happens when police officers care too much about their own work and corruption committed in order to get the bad guys off the streets. Many feel that corruption for personal gain is more serious than corrupt behaviour that tends to benefit the society at large.

This is expressed best in the film Dirty Harry where the anti-hero is trying to achieve a good end, trying to find a girl whose life is in imminent danger, and tortures the kidnapper who refuses to reveal her whereabouts. The image of Harry Callaghan inflicting pain upon a psychopath is emotionally compelling.

But in practice when police either fabricate evidence or use excessive force, they violate the right of the suspect and affect the moral fibre of the policemen indulging in such methods. Besides, corrupt acts including noble cause corruption are habitual, not a one-off immoral action committed for a good purpose. Police officers simply tend to act in this manner, rather than rationally calculating the morality of ends and means on a case-by-case basis.

... contd.