According to our book “Ethical Dilemmas and Decision in Criminal Justice,” we learn, as a class, about the different missions and responsibilities that law enforcement has. The book talks about two specific missions of the law enforcement which are crime fighting and public service. As a law enforcement, professional ethics should be honest and ethical. Although this, in the recent years, we have heard about some of these professionals that have been abused of their position. However, as a society, we should not believe that every person on the law enforcement career is the same. As a society, we should focus on the officers that are doing a great job every day trying to deter the crime. They are public servants, this means that they are working …show more content…
According to Klockars, the following elements that describe police control are authority, power, persuasion and force. If an officer has the need or the opportunity to use one of these four types of denomination, the officer has the right to control the situation. This is an example of discretion. Discretions are defined as having the authority to choose between two or more courses of behavior. By this term, police officers could choose different courses of actions, as long this will benefit all people.
On chapter six, we learn more about police discretions and dilemmas. Chapter 6 talks about the different situations where sometimes officers view more about prejudicial attitudes toward groups. For example, individuals have their own perception of different groups such as women, minorities, or homosexuals. These perceptions could affect the way that officers do their job. When this happened, this could cause that a citizen could receive less protection from the law that than other citizens
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This percentage is minuscule. However, this percentage is extremely problematic when it occurs.
On chapter seven, police corruption and responses are discussed. This chapter provides more detailed discussion of misconduct and corruption. These officers abuse of their position in order to obtain improper financial or another kind of benefits. In addition, the Knapp Commissions identified grass eaters which it means police who passively take advantage of opportunities and meat eaters which mean police who actively commit crimes.
In the United States, the police corruption is not exempted from. However, this not means that police corruption does not occur around the world. For example, gratuities that demean the status of police as professional. Another example of corruption is graft. The graft is any type of abuse of one’s position for personal gain. This type of corruption involves the using of the position for a financial benefit.
The police corruption is identified and categorize by Barker and Carter. They propose that police abuse of authority comes in three different
Decision Making – Police officers have considerable decision making powers at their own discretion. This is true for low ranki...
Serve and Protect are common words associated with police officers, however some law enforcement officers taint the honor and integrity of the job. Police Corruption is a serious problem affecting nearly every city across the country and world. Curbing police corruption is a tall order; however, improving the recruitment and training process and internal controls can bring this issue to an abrupt stop.
In this essay, I will examine the ethical issues surrounding police corruption and discretion in the criminal justice system. I will also define legality and equity and how they relate to police corruption and discretion. Police corruption and discretion are ethical issues that have been negatively impacting the criminal justice system for years. Police corruption weakens the public 's confidence in law enforcement officers. It also hinders the effectiveness of law enforcement officers whose job is to serve and protect. I will also define police corruption and discretion and the reasons behind police misconduct.
Individual prejudices and perceptions of groups such as minorities and homosexuals can influence their decision making. If these prejudicial attitudes toward groups affect decisions made by officers those groups may not receive the same protections as other citizens. This is discrimination, which can take the form of either enforcing the law differently or with holding protections from particular individuals. Additionally, racial profiling occurs when a police officer make a stop based on race or ethnicity. Pretext stop refers to the practice of police officers to use minor traffic violations to stop an individual and looks for other evidence of wrongdoing, often by a search. They could be viewed as discrimination based on their context.
While reviewing the various instances of corruption by Law enforcement officers, it was shocking to see the increasing instances of repetitive and flagrant violations of abuse and corruption by law enforcement. Although it is conceivable that in some instances, such as the excessive use of force, the officer's perception of events at that instance could be skewed and could, therefore, result in an outcome less favorable than intended, however, there are some instances in which the actions of the officer(s) are intentional.
Police corruption is a difficult issue cities have to deal with and one of the oldest problems in the police force. Corruption can be defined as the mistreatment of public power for personal benefit or private and the use of excessive force either emotional or physical. In this essay I will explain in detail federal indictments of Los Angeles Country Sheriff officers use of mistreatment of jail inmates and visitors. Another topic I will explain is the transfer of Los Angeles Country Sheriff hired officers with questionable background. Finally I will end by analyzing the hiring of new Sheriff deputies under the “Friends of the Sheriff” program. There are several ways police departments could take to reduce police corruption. The three areas I think should change are the training officers further in how to diminish abuse, improving personal character of officers, and incentives program.
Officers are able to use discretion in many situations that their morals would guide them in. They have the right to pull a person over with probable cause or a violation and they can choose whether to give them a ticket, a warning, or nothing, depending on the situation.
Discretion is defined as the authority to make a decision between two or more choices (Pollock, 2010). More specifically, it is defined as “the capacity to identify and to document criminal and noncriminal events” (Boivin & Cordeau, 2011). Every police officer has a great deal of discretion concerning when to use their authority, power, persuasion, or force. Depending on how an officer sees their duty to society will determine an officer’s discretion. Discretion leads to selective enforcement practices and may result in discrimination against certain groups of people or select individuals (Young, 2011). Most police officer discretion is exercised in situations with individuals (Sherman, 1984).
Corruption in policing is viewed as the misuse of authority by a police officer acting officially to fulfill his/her personal needs or wants. There are two distinct elements of corruption; 1) misuse of authority, 2) personal attainment. The occupational subculture of policing is a major factor in both creating police corruption, by initiating officers into corrupt activities, and sustaining it, by covering up corrupt activities by other officers. Police corruption is a complex phenomenon, which does not readily submit to simple analysis. It is a problem that has and will continue to affect us all, whether we are civilians or law enforcement officers. Since its beginnings, many aspects of policing have changed; however, one aspect that has remained relatively unchanged is the existence of corruption. Police corruption has increased dramatically with the illegal cocaine trade, and the officer acting alone or in-groups to steal money from dealer and/or distribute cocaine themselves. Large groups of corrupt police officers have been caught in New York, New Orleans, Washington, Dc, and Los Angeles. Corruption within police departments falls into two basic categories; internal corruption, involving relationships among the police within the works of the police department (ex: promotions or favored assignments, usually purchased with bribes) and external corruption, which involves police contact with the public. There are many different forms of corruption; gratuity, involving free meals, free dry cleaning and discounts; bribery, involving the exchange of money or something of value between the police and wrong doer (this is very common among narcotics officers); theft and Burglary, involving office...
Police discretionary practices vary from officer to officer and every officer is differently trained by departments. Without the proper use of discretion out on the field, police officers are left open for legal suit actions however, if the officers are trained and exercising the use of discretion in a good manner, each individual officer can be held accountable. The second disadvantage of use of police discretion is that it allows the police officers to have too much power on making decisions which can affect the life, safety or liberty of an individual (Bargen, 2005). Police discretion presents a clear danger to society because the average officer can make a poor decision and affect the life of a person or persons. If discretion in law enforcement is used in a wrongful manner, it has great potential for being abused out of the field. Discretion allows police officers to “perform a duty or refrain from taking action” (Gaines & Kappeler, 2003, p. 251). Police officers are supposed to enforce equality under the law, people in society all should have equal rights and should be treated the same. However, discretion allows police officers to misuse it by treating offenders of different genders, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age and more inappropriately (Pepinsky, 1984). Law enforcement officers are
The article Police Integrity: Rankings of Scenarios on the Klockars Scale by “Management Cops,” conveys that the different scenarios for each definition and the nature of police work make this corruption difficult to specifically define (Vito 153). Since it is so challenging to correctly define, the three broad ca...
Ethics play a huge role in a police officers line of work. Since police are given such a high degree of trust and authority, it can unfortunately be very easy for an officer to fall into some unethical behavior. This can range from just minor acts that are frowned upon, to actual downright illegal activity. Even though there are a countless number of acts and behaviors that can be considered unethical, in the following paper I will focus primarily on those incidents involving police officers who steal for their own personal gain, and discuss my position on the issue.
Police corruption is a nationwide problem that has been going on for many years. Not only is corruption a problem on our own U.S. soil, but police practices of corruption go as far east as Europe and Asia. Many studies, polls and examinations were taken to find out how exactly what the general publics’ opinions of the police are. Officers receive a lot of scrutiny over this issue, but for good reason.
Criminal Justice professionals are in positions of power and exercise power and authority over others. Therefore, it is important for them to study ethics because they must be aware of the ethical standards needed in making critical decisions involving discretion, force, and due process. It is also a fact that criminal justice professionals who exercise power and authority over others can be tempted to abuse their powers.
What is police corruption? Overall police corruption is an officer’s personal gain through the misrepresentation of police power. Police corruption comes in many forms. It can be as insignificant as accepting a free cup of coffee from a coffee shop, accepting bribes in lieu of investigation or arrest, ticket fixing, and greed. Cases of police corruption are cited frequently across the United States. Corruption is nothing new, but why does it continue to go on within law enfo...