Just like every other profession, a code of ethics is necessary for police officers to follow or abide by. The code of ethics can prevent them from doing something that is driven by emotion or ignorance. Police officers have a bond or brotherhood and they should “have each other’s backs” in some cases they see a fellow officer do something that is not ethical or right and keep quiet. People are fast to judge every time that a police officer shoots someone without knowing the back story or the facts, making it a tough time to be a police officer. A code of ethics will not stop police from doing something that is not ethical because in the end they are human. Temptation and the feeling of having power are always there. The City of Tempe page …show more content…
A person might view this as not ethical even unfair that this young man got such a light punishment when he had a record already. Other criminals might get a harder sentence for the same crime this is not how justice should work, justice should be fair and blind. A police officer is viewed by society and expected to be a person of integrity and honor one who protects and serves, this should be the case of duty too. This is not always the case, some examples of this were when an off duty officer pulled out a gun on a store clerk in Tucson and when another officer pulled out a gun in a Yuma bar. This does not show ethical behavior, even when they are off duty their name is linked to the badge and as soon as they do something wrong the medias has it all over the newspapers, internet and television, they are judged more than a regular citizen. These are examples of regular human beings, being immoral or non ethical; these officers could be ethical police officers when they are in uniform, because they follow the code of conduct on the “job …show more content…
Do cops really need a code of ethics?. Criminal Justice Ethics,10(2),14.
Divisions & Organization Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://www.tempe.gov/city-hall/police/tpd-divisions-organization-overview
Ethics code for police. (2014, April 24). Times [London, England], p. 4. Retrieved from https://login.ezp.mesacc.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezp.mesacc.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA365864377&v=2.1&u=mcc_mesa&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=d0122b13e0270a8d9e9cfe8416ce42f2
POLICE ETHICS SILENCE 'BLUE CODE'. (2009, November 5). Taos News [Taos, NM], p. A-2. Retrieved from
The job of a law enforcement officer sometimes can be tough. Officer are sometimes plagued with situation that test their ability to enforce the law and maintain order. Police officers today face a constant battle to maintain higher ethical standards. This mission becomes tougher each day when one considers the importance of fighting terrorism, drugs, human trafficking,
To understand the blue wall of silence we must understand the definition. The blue wall of silence is defined as: An unwritten code among police officers not to report on another officer’s errors, misconducts, and or crimes when questioned about an incident of misconduct involving another colleague, during a course of an inquiry. Even though the blue wall of silence originated from the understandable need for law enforcement to be able to trust and rely on each other, it is neither morally justifiable nor is it a legal act. The wall of silence hinders the relationship with the community by degrading the trust and compromising the integrity. It is generally understood that the code of silence breeds, supports and nourishes other forms of unethical
Williams, C.R., & Arrigo, B.A. (2012). Ethics, Crime and criminal justice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
A code of ethics is essential to a profession, especially a law enforcement agency in my opinion. A code of ethics will provide a starting point for the professionals and for others that they may deal with on a daily basis. It will also ensure fair treatment of members of the profession and the profession serves. Ethics provides a framework for conducting essential information functions, instituting policies, and developing strategies for service. Without them, we are merely on our own to determine what is right. Some without morals may take advantage of that, which would look unjust in the eyes of the public.
Police ethics are extremely important because ethics are the typical of “fair and honest conduct” (pg 460). People may have a different definition of what is fair and what is honest, and there are different circumstances where officers may not be able to be honest; such as covert investigations. Society in general determines what our ethical standards and moral principles are. Individual morals vary among all of us as they are what we as an individual consider to be right or wrong. We also have morals that are set by society. These are what we as a society consider to be right or wrong and may go hand in hand with individual morals. Morals change as society and people change, therefore we as a country have to adapt to what the changing morals are.
As taught in the lectures, it is impossible for police officers to win the war against crime without bending the rules, however when the rules are bent so much that it starts to violate t...
A Critical Assessment In defining police ethics, ethical policing and police ethics are not synonymous or interchangeable connotations to or for one another. Aside from establishing a police role independently from establishing any definition of ethics or police ethics, the semantics tend to complicate the defining process. Some of these complications include, but are not limited to, sociological aspects, psychological conditions, or philosophical reasoning. Examples of sociological complications include historical, political, cultural, or economic aspects. Some psychological examples include one’s ability to discern sociological implications from other implications; namely, the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder, hydrophobia, or even weary dreams. Lastly,
Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2012). Police in America: An Introduction (8th Edition ed.). New York:
Bibliography Why Good Cops Go Bad. Newsweek, p.18. Carter, David L. (1986). Deviance & Police. Ohio: Anderson Publishing Co. Castaneda, Ruben (1993, Jan. 18). Bearing the Badge of Mistrust. The Washington Post, p.11. Dantzer, Mark L. (1995). Understanding Today's Police. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. James, George (1993, Mar. 29). Confessions of Corruption. The New York Times, P.8, James, George (1993, Nov. 17). Officials Say Police Corruption is Hard To Stop. The New York times, p.3. Sherman, Lawrence W(1978). Commission Findings. New York Post, P. 28 Walker, J.T. (1992). The police in America, p.243-263, chp. 10, Walker, Samuel (1999).
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Police Officers Oath of Office and Code of Ethics, A Question of knowledge Richard W. Deshon (2000) retrieved from: www.emich.edu/cerns/downloads/papers/PoliceStaff/
Martin, Rich. "Police Corruption: An Analytical Look into Police Ethics." The FBI Enforcement Bulletin May 2011: 11+. Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
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.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that, at its core, seeks to understand and to determine how human actions are judged right or wrong. Those thought to be ethical are described in terms of their honesty, integrity and good character. For these reasons, personal ethics are said to be our foundation and, as such, often influence how we administer ethical codes of conduct in carrying out our organizational duties. While attempting to arrive at appropriate ethical decisions, it is helpful that police officers possess the capacity to exercise moral imagination. Moral imagination provides the ability to identify and assess alternatives and to effectively weigh the consequences when attempting to address issues that present ethical dilemmas.
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).