Sunlight helps cure police misconduct

Why do some police officers seem to think the authority granted them by society to enforce the law constitutes a license to beat up detainees, falsify evidence, take bribes, commit sexual assault or even kill with impunity?

I'm speaking, I'm sorry to say, of incidents involving the police in my native country, the United States, where bad news has bubbled up steadily of late like a clogged sewer drain.

What is it about the culture of law enforcement that validates, maybe even encourages, sadistic brutality? And how can it be rooted out?