Dan,

I  think the answer to an officer or officers acting with perceived impunity lies in the type of employee hired and the horrible hiring practices, especially within bigger agencies.  The created and manufactured atmosphere also adds to these issues (I will bet that as the Memphis story is further examined, somewhere along the line it will come out that supervisors of that 'jump out' group commonly encouraged their hard-core officers to go out there and kick some ass - of course, these supervisors will claim they just meant that figuratively and not literally).

There is a crisis going on in police hiring across the board and with many different variables Too many of the wrong people are also being hired.  Hiring standards have steadily devolved and with what has been being revealed over the last, what, ten years, potential hires just don't want to work in such an environment anymore. And even though so much of this is self-inflicted, people just don't want to enter into an occupation filled with so many negatives. 

Unfortunately, discussing one aspect of hiring/selection (the lowering of testing/selecting standards) very easily could lead to someone being potentially labeled as racist, so I am going to side-step that one.

Believe me, I am at a loss to understand the ongoing and continued capturing of misconduct on recordings.  Again, I'm not suggesting corrupt officers get better at avoiding being recorded, but one would think the knowledge or awareness of KNOWING there are cameras everywhere would be some sort of misconduct deterrent, but for some bizarre reason, it does not seem to be that way.

And believe me, it makes me ill when I see other officers go out of their way to either excuse such behavior or find ways to lessen it by suggesting things like, "oh, if the guy had only complied" or by bringing up the person's background in a way to dirty the person up to distract from the act/s of misconduct.

Lastly, "codes of silence" or the "blue wall of silence," to me, are vastly overrated in certain areas.  Oddly, where they are weakest is during the harshest acts of misconduct.  Lips will part when there is a threat of firing, loss of pension, or potential jail/prison time. I think a large part of it also depends on the specific circumstances and events.

One thing that does irk me, though, is how out of all occupational organizations/environments, policing seems to receive the largest amount of criticism for the failure of people coming forward when it comes to bad acts.  I know of no group that does so. From lawyers, doctors, mechanics, manufacturers, medical employees, teachers, journalists, and all others, none of them report misconduct at any better rate than that seen in policing. 

My point here is that ALL organizations, by either omission or commission, dissuade whistleblowing.  And by the mere practice of failing to create methods for doing so, allows these acts to continue.

For example, one time I made a valid complaint about a supervisor's misconduct and an administrator from above dealt with the complaint with a stern warning of "we're not going to have officers making complaints about supervisors." The complaint - a serious one, was quashed. To add to this, the supervisor investigating my complaint even tried to elicit a response from me that would have led to my being investigated as well, though I was too wise to fall into his trap. 

And this is what really gets me - when I see a new act of misconduct - especially those where the "teachable moment" has already occurred because of the one before it - I ask myself "when are these people going to learn!"  There have just been too many incidents that have not led to enough behavioral change.