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Ethics within policing
Ethics in policing
Ethical dilemma in police work
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Within our police system in America, there are gaps and loopholes that give leeway to police officials who either abuse the authority given to them or do not represent the ethical standards that they are expected to live up to by society. Because of the nature of police work, there is a potential for deterioration of these ethical and moral standards through deviance, misconduct, corruption, and favoritism. Although these standards are set in place, many police officers are not held accountable for their actions and can easily get by with the mistreatment of others because of their career title. While not every police abuses his or her power, the increasingly large percentage that do present a problem that must be recognized by the public as well as those in charge of police departments throughout our country. Police officials are abusing their power and authority through three types of misconduct known as malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance and these types are being overlooked by management personnel who rarely intervene even though they know what is happening. Misconduct is wrong because it violates rights and causes people to be wrongly accused of crimes or be found not guilty and set free when they are still an endangerment to other people. The public needs to be educated on what is happening in the police system in hopes that someone will speak out to protect citizens from being violated by police officers. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...colleagues and therefore much of this deviance goes unnoticed. Works Cited Hodgson, Jacqueline. "Adding Injury to Injustice: The Suspect at the Police Station." Journal of Law and Society Mar. 1994: 85-101. Academic OneFile. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. Martin, Rich. "Police Corruption: An Analytical Look into Police Ethics." The FBI Enforcement Bulletin May 2011: 11+. Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. O'Connor, T.R. "Police Deviance and Ethics." PoliceCrimes.com. 11 Nov. 2005. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. Vito, Gennaro F., Scott Wolfe, George E. Higgins, and William F. Walsh. "Police Integrity: Rankings Reprints of Scenarios on the Klockars Scale by “Management Cops”." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. June 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Weitzer, Ronald, and Steven A. Tuch. "Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct." JSTOR. Aug. 2004. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
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.
Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one. Here are some reasons why it is a problem. First, many departments don’t provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to do in a non-violent situation, often resorting
One of the most important recommendation the researchers made in this group stands out from other researches that have brought up because they say one thing that one hasn't before – if a police officer commits corruption and fellow law enforcement officer (police officer or supervisors), knew of the corruption or was present, they need to be charged the same as the police officer that was directly charged (or fired, depending on the outcome). If this standard was set forth with in law enforcement agencies, the rate of corruption would drop, and the rate of reporting corruption would sky rocket. Why would want to be fired or charged with federal crimes for something a fellow police officer did and they knew about it, but didn't say anything? Researcher, Dick Simpson, brought up an interesting insight into how the fix the police board (that investigate complaints of possible corruption from a police officer). He stated that since it's very obvious a police department like Chicago, their police board isn't working right, or their corruption rate would be nearly as high as it is. He suggested that the current police board
Police departments must execute their duties in such a manner that protects the conditions of a democratic society and addresses the security needs of all individuals and groups. The execution of these duties must also show the community that they serve, that they are good stewards of the positions they have been afforded the opportunity to hold, and those who hold these positions must be free from corruption. The term ‘police corruption’ has been used to describe many activities: bribery; violence and brutality; fabrication and destruction of evidence; racism; and, favoritism or nepotism. Stories of police corruption are read about or seen on news broadcasts at a level that would tend to make the public believe that corruption incidents such as those listed above are still as prevalent in law enforcement now as in the past.
In this paper, the ethics of police management is examined in the framework of organizational justice and how management strategy effects police corruption through employee perception and proper employment strategy. Organizational Justice as studied by Muchinksy (2008) and cited by Crow, Lee and Joo (2012) is the concept of how employees perceive their treatment by management. (Crow, Lee, & Joo, 2012)
Holmes, Malcolm D. "Minority threat and police brutality: Determinants of civil rights criminal complaints in US municipalities." Criminology 38.2 (2000): 343-368.
Police corruption is defined as a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers break their social contract and abuse their power for personal or department gain. It is a nationwide problem that has been going on for many years, and it is a problem that will continue to effect us regardless if we are innocent bystanders or law enforcement officers. The history of the New York City Police Department has included thousands of documented cases of police misconduct by its officers. over 12,000 such cases have resulted in lawsuit settlements totaling in over $400 million during a five-year period ending in 2014. As a civilian we expect our officers to ensure us and enforce the law but if our departments our crooked how can we feel
Police corruption can be defined as a malpractice by police officers through which they breach their social contract misuse their authority for personal gain. The acts of corruption by the police department in NYC have been rampant over the decades. Series of scandals in the police service involving quite a number of officers has drawn the attention of many, questioning the level of standards of ethics and integrity in the New York Police Department (NYPD).
"Race, Trust and Police Legitimacy." National Institute of Justice. Office of Justice Programs, 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.
Holmes, M. D. (2000). MINORITY THREAT AND POLICE BRUTALITY: DETERMINANTS OF CIVIL RIGHTS CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS IN U.S. MUNICIPALITIES. Criminology, 38(2), 343-367.
We hear about police misconduct case and wonder, Why don’t they do anything to stop this? Many say that we should keep the police officers’ perspective in mind. Others say that these actions are due to racism or post 9/11 paranoia. Whatever the excuse may be for these cases, there should be no need for violence anywhere. Police brutality videos go viral and reveal to the world that it actually happens and that it may happen to you too. This pervades people with fear and anger because their civil right are being violated. Riots are the outcome making the streets unsafe and chaotic. Statistics show percentage of the movements taken upon these criminal acts performed by police officers. We can put a stop to this and we will put a stop to this.
“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power;” as President, James Madison knew the imperfections of the people he governed. As it is with many things in life, there can always be too much of something; therefore, there is a certain degree to how much freedom and power a person can have. A police officer, or any other powerful authority can abuse the power that they have. Police brutality occurs when an officer uses “extreme physical force, verbal attacks, and threats” against a person without a fair reason for doing so. (Ostrovskii 3) It is a very serious problem that occurs worldwide. Every police department experiences a case of misconduct at some point in time. Unfortunately, many of the officers responsible for these acts often face no consequences. Police brutality, which is growing in cases every year, is a crime that generally affects certain nationalities, often goes unpunished, and is a controversial topic that plenty do not understand but want to stop.
Corruption in law enforcement has been a nationwide problem for many years. Not only is corruption held in one level of law enforcement, but throughout the three levels including the state, local and federal. The formation of the first police departments were the model by the early english society. The early years of policing began to contribute various forms of misconduct from police officers. Soon thereafter, Sir Robert peel established early modern policing which influenced the colonial america policing to the english society. Yet, even after following the model of other countries of law enforcement, Colonial America corruption still continued. In the mid 1800's, corruption continued to widely affect society as a whole. It was until August Vollmer, who marked the contribution of professionalism to policing, that a notable difference began to diminish corruption. Misconduct occurs at all policing levels and continues to spread worldwide. The most common types of corruption are bribes, kickbacks, shakedowns, opportunistic theft, physical abuse, protection of illegal activities and physical abuse. These types of corruption are seen throughout all levels of law enforcement. Corruption is more prominent among higher ranking officers. Not only is misconduct found among those holding higher positions, but it is also seen in rookies who are just entering law enforcement. Corruption is induced not only from individual corrupt officers or chiefs, but occurs as a result of inadequate leadership structures and administrative policies. Eliminating reducing misconduct must be done by demonstrating integrity, better organization within the policies, stricter recruitment and training.
People often believe that there is no other profession that require high ethical standard than the Department of Law Enforcement. Every law enforcement officers in the United States of America should at least know that they live in a fishbowl because friends, neighbors, relatives, strangers are able to watch every move a police officer does regardless it is on duty and off duty. The community residents scrutinize law enforcement officers more than any other important occupations because law enforcement officers are an image of a strong leader and are a role model for children, however, others hope to catch them on their mistakes due to their perfect image. It is stated from the Federal Bureau of Investigations that a leader set the authority for their department and ethical performance (Fortenbery, 2015). In today’s society, the media are continuing to display police officers on their wrongdoing. In addition, police officers are required to serve and protect the community from harmful criminals, but they continue to use unjustified actions such as excessive use of force, abuse of authority, speeding, and misuse of public office.
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).