Integrity In Law Enforcement

Integrity Integrity is “the quality of being honest and morally upright.” It is said that integrity is “the sum of the virtues required to bring about the general goals of protections and service to the public.” (FBI, 2011). There is a list of characteristics that an officer must possess to have integrity. They must possess prudence, the ability to be cautious and decide the best action to take. They must also possess trust, loyalty and honesty in relationships between officers, citizens, and supervisors. They must possess humbleness, without this it could damage the relationships with other officers. Courage is also a characteristic that is important to possess. Also, they must possess intellectual honesty, not being aware

In the introduction of this paper, there was a situation described where the new police officer was faced with a difficult decision, whether to pay the bill, or go along with his partner and not pay. Ethical conflicts occur when the actions of one person or multiple people interfere with the interests or values of another person, or a community. (Schafer). Personal orientation includes individual values, cultures, religious beliefs and personal biases. (Schafer). The ethical decision making process is very difficult. You must ask yourself “What should I do?” “What will I do?” and “How does the decision I make effect my personal orientation?” Ethical decisions are never easy for anyone. These decisions arise fear, fear of ones status quo changing. People feel that they must maintain equilibrium in their lives and seldom act in a manner that disrupts this equilibrium. (Schafer). When confronted with an ethical decision, a person’s ability to make a decision often becomes very difficult because of the urge to maintain equilibrium in their life. In every ethical dilemma, there is a short term and long term solution. The short-term solution will benefit the police officer in the sense of how the senior officer feels about him but this decision could harm the owner of the restaurant financially long term. The short-term solution would be to just not pay for the bill

Earlier in this paper, ethics, professionalism, integrity, and corruption were described and defined. Ethics has to deal with behaviors based on what is morally right and wrong. Professionalism consists of good judgment and polite behavior that is very much expected from someone who serves and protects their community. Integrity is the quality of being honest and fair. Corruption is just about the complete opposite of all of those terms. You should always choose the right decision, but it can be hard because you do not want to upset anyone or jeopardize a relationship in the work place. The best thing to do in this situation in my opinion is to pay for the bill whether it may be in front of the senior officer or behind his back. He could say “This one is on me.” And hope that the senior officer did not get upset. Or he could like I said earlier in the solution, tell the senior officer to meet him in the car and say he has to go to the bathroom and pay for the bill afterwards. Choosing not to pay the bill and accepting the gratuity would be unprofessional and highly unethical. Just one wrong decision could change how the community views you and it could also change their view on every police officer. There is a difference between knowing what the right thing to do is, and actually doing