Police gifts and benefits scandals: addressing deficits in policy, leadership and enforcement.

This paper examines three recent high-profile cases involving gifts and benefits to police. The cases, two from Australia and one from England, involved both frontline officers and senior managers. The analyses track the unfolding scandals, and how they were investigated and evaluated by official inquiries. In two of the cases, gifts and hospitality were enmeshed with wider forms of corruption. The official inquiries identified how gratuities undermined public confidence in the impartiality of police, and how inappropriate gifts and benefits were facilitated by liberal policies and deficient leadership. The paper concludes by arguing that police need to adopt a highly restrictive policy on gratuities, and follow through with effective forms of compliance management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]