Reference no: EM133119386

The Wall of Silence (or Code of Silence) describes how line officers protect each other by making it so their supervisors, and even the public, do not know any additional information about an incident that is under investigation with one of their fellow officers. Essentially, if line officers are involved in a situation that requires an investigation and it appears there will be discipline behind it, all of the officers will remain silent and refuse to provide further information that would assist in the discovery of the truth.

In a hypothetical scenario, say there were four officers who engaged in a foot pursuit of a suspect. At the end of the pursuit, one of the officers punched the suspect in the face a few times and did not report the force. Instead, when their supervisor asked how the suspect sustained his injuries, all the officers say he fell and hit his face while running from them. Even though only one officer used force and did not report it, all of the officers used the Wall of Silence to protect their own.

Just like the example given in the textbook; eventually the Wall of Silence will crack and the information surrounding the investigation will be made public for everyone to see. This will create a negative community perception of their police department and lack of trust.