The Contours of an Organizational Theory of Green Police Integrity

Abstract

This chapter extends the theory of police integrity into that of green police integrity by employing the perspective of green criminology and developing a new typology of scenarios based on the areas of environmental crime. The study pilots that methodology in Estonia and addresses the nature of green police integrity among the Estonian police. The data are based on a 2018 study of 149 police officers in Estonia during which the respondents provided their opinions about hypothetical cases of police misconduct involving environmental crimes. The findings suggest the seriousness the respondents assigned to the green police integrity scenarios tended to be relatively low compared to the classic police integrity scenarios and, in case of all but one green integrity scenarios, compared to the least serious classic scenario, the respondents were, on average, less certain that the behavior would be seen as violations in their agency. While dismissal was the modal discipline that was expected to be meted out by the organization for the three classic police integrity scenarios, and also considered appropriate by the largest number of respondents in two scenarios out of the three, expected and appropriate discipline for the green police integrity scenarios was much more lenient—either verbal reprimand or written reprimand. The green police integrity scenarios were also more strongly covered by the code of silence than the classic forms of police misconduct.