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Ethics in law enforcement
The importance of ethics in law enforcement
The importance of ethics in law enforcement
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Ethical behavior in law enforcement officers is continuously under scrutiny by the media, public and other law enforcement personnel. There are effective implements in place to balance the applications and efficiency of Ethics in law enforcement; to make just and lawful decisions to benefit of communities. Ethics is a decision making process, which creates the ability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Ethical behavior is to do the right thing, with actions. Distinguishing what is right and what is wrong is based on morals and values, which we learned as children. However, as children grow into adults, individual morals and values become straight forward; they generally support the moral judgments that society has in place. In most cases of ethical dilemmas in policing, officers rely on trainings, laws and agency guidelines to follow …show more content…
It is important in regards to employment as well as for public perception. As the public and communities observe ethical behavior in off duty officers, they are assured that officers are not above the law. When unethical behavior occurs public perception changes. Social media and media have recently brought unreasonable force issues to the public, which has had a domino type affect which has escalated from communicating about unethical behavior and reexamining standards, to individuals rioting and protesting against law enforcement and police officers in general. Not all officers are unethical, most are ethical; one officers’ actions are being alleged by society that all law enforcement officers are unethical. This is a generalized supposition, conveyed by one person’s actions: it is erroneous. Law enforcement agencies must adhere to the high ethical standards that is essential to officers; they are responsible for ensuring ethical behavior standards are developed and used within its own
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,
As stated in the textbook, police often have to make decisions on their own, with only their moral compass to guide them. Most ethical dilemmas that police officers face derive from their powers of discretion. Moral dilemmas that police officers face are often frequent and unavoidable. They are often unpopular with many people, resolved quickly, and are often dealt with alone.
An article written jointly by Mark Perez and Anthony H Normore, published in the Journal of California Law Enforcement discusses the growing concern that the public’s trust in law enforcement is at an all-time low due to the ethical choices that some of our leadership have been making and how we can improve the publics opinion of law enforcement and some of their unethical decisions. The purpose of their article is to share their thoughts on police leadership and ethic, they feel by having just one powerful confident police leader in a department it can have a positive impact on that police department by reducing the rate of misconduct. They also feel by having a police force with strong integrity
Police officers often encounter situations where the decision to use discretion challenges the way and the type of job that officers would normally conduct. Each day an officer is on the job, discretion when it comes to job duties appears, sometimes without any warning. Officers constantly struggle with the appearance of discretion, and often times do not know how to handle the situation when it does appear. Discretion may take many different forms in the job duties, but it always involves the officer letting a crime “slide,” rather than questioning every suspicious person. Letting a crime “slide,” for certain offenders, is of great concern for the administrators of police departments, because there is potential for ethical issues to surface later on. This essay will examine police discretion, factors that influence discretion, whether exercising discretion is appropriate, and the concerns that administrators have when it comes to police using discretion in the field.
Police misconduct has been in existence since the 1600’s, European Influence on American Policing. Ironically, Police Officers in modern day continue the legacy of the police “culture” (Barry, 1999). A culture of abuse of authority or discretion, code of silence amongst officers, discrimination, and a strong belief that “cops — and firefighters — stick together, in life and death situations” (Wetendorf, 2004). Regardless of the abuse of authority officers conduct, it is a clear sign of poor ethics and morals amongst officers.
Ethics is moral principles that govern a person 's or group 's behavior. Law enforcement should have good ethics that is what the community expects. There are many opinions about what are good ethics. Some ethics may or can even cause problems. For example protecting is a good ethic that law enforcement should obtain. If their is a man who is not on their five senses either on drugs or drunk carrying a lethal weapon, any firearm, device, instrument, material, or any other substance that is capable of producing great bodily harm or death from the manner it is used or intended to be used. The police morality is to protect in order to do that they may have to agriate the man to a certain extent. For me That is a good ethic or moral since i see protection for the people who were around this unstable man. On the other hand others see it as police brutality since the man was not conscious of what he was doing, so is this protecting behavior good or bad for our law enforcement. For me ethics is just a way for people to judge you on what kind of person you are. There is a problem with that because people judge on what they think is going on not on what the situation is encountering. For law enforcement ethics are codes that the choose to follow on their own not because they are being criticized, but because they want to. Law
For instance, the individual who acted morally in the first place is now being harassed unmercifully by the others in the division (Pollock, 2017). Hence, if the administration asks about what you have observed and heard, you may become a target for similar actions (Francis, Armstrong, & Foxley, (2015). Correspondingly, it is likely that those officers engaged in the harassing behavior lose their livelihood, thereby harming their families. Also, it is possible that even if you act ethically and tell what you know, leave the department to circumvent the possibility of harassment, that other department may not hire you to do to telling on other law enforcement officers. Therefore, your career may suffer if you choose to proceed morally. Subsequently, these possibilities promote silence regarding the immoral officers’ actions from a self-interest
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,
The use of discretion in the profession of law enforcement has shown to be an inevitable practice. Police officers routinely use their own beliefs and judgments to make critical decisions that include the life and liberty of the citizens in the community they serve in. Although discretion has both negative and positive sides to it, discretion is impossible to be eliminated from law enforcement. The best way to use discretion in a safe manner is to practice using discretion while on and off duty as well. While practicing discretion, officers should keep their own beliefs and prejudice to themselves and out of line of duty. When police officers are on duty, they must have knowledge of what is going on around them and eliminate discriminatory factors and use confidence to make a lawful
Prevention involves improved supervision, ethics training, cultural awareness, and excellent interpersonal skills (Ortimier & Meese, 2010, p. 96). To ensure professionalism, agency’s often try to recruit and train ethical officers while implementing a code of conduct as a comprehensive tool to enhance police integrity and strengthen community relations (Ortimier & Meese, 2010). Training within the culture takes in the framework of helping officers apply the cognitive view of culture awareness in uncertain scenarios to apply appropriate responses to ethical dilemmas. (Pollock & Becker,
Correcting police misconduct and police officers using professional discretion and crossing ethical boundaries is a colossal challenge that every police department in America has at one time taken on. In order to correct the problem police departments should maintain a written policy regarding the guidelines pertaining to the use of officer discretion and the result of incorrectly using their discretion. Also, training in police ethics and past examples of officer misconduct must be incorporated from the first day at the academy, in addition to annual ethics training. This will lay the foundation for a police department’s success. Reward an officer’s ethical behavior. Rewarding ethical behavior and disciplining officers for unethical
As a result of the recent rise of the use of excessive force cases against police and law enforcement, I have chosen to research the definition of that excessive force. When is it considered justifiable? What training do officers receive? What liability issues are there? In an ABC news article, Sascha Segan states there is no specific definition of excessive force. A part of everyday police work is to subdue criminal and suspects. Another everyday task of police officers is personal discretion - making the right decision based on the specific situation. It has been documented in multiple viral videos that law enforcement officer’s discretion is not always favorable in the public eye and is quick to be judged. Yet shouldn’t we be asking if the officer’s actions were justifiable within the court system and if
Martin, Rich. "Police Corruption: An Analytical Look into Police Ethics." The FBI Enforcement Bulletin May 2011: 11+. Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
This is also the same reason why the article is important. It gives the citizens a good look into what the correct behavior for an ethical police officer is. This article is very similar to the article Written by the United States Department of Justice, except their article only gives a short definition of police ethics, and offers a more detailed explanation of why these codes are important and how they can be used to improve the tarnished relationships between communities and their
Many law enforcement officers are exposed briefly to the topic of ethics while in the academy. Often times, after leaving the academy, they do not receive continued education. The International Association of Chiefs of Police recommends that ethics training be integrated into continued training and in-service training curriculums. Studies are suggesting that this is occurring and there is literature supporting the view that the law enforcement community perceives ethics training as a worthwhile endeavor that should be offered on a continuous basis to all ranks within the organization (Wyatt-Nichol & Franks, 2009).