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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. …show more content…
Professionalism, ethics, and leadership are some of the core values that is so critical in the police department. Researchers determine that to build an effective policing, a police officer must have integrity and ethics in order to improve interactions with residents (Ethics and Integrity, n.d.). Ethics and leadership sets the tone and produce the high level of professionalism in the organization. Ethics principles in society’s mindset is that right is always better and wrong is always lead to serious consequences. For example, when a police officer fail to follow proper procedures, it gives the department a bad name and it shows that their department cannot be
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,
Each position in criminal justice holds power and responsibility, and therefore, it is very important that said people in those positions do not abuse it. Unethical behavior in the criminal justice system takes away trust and respect from authority, and as a consequence, the law is more easily disregarded if the people lack faith in the system. It can, also, contribute to crime and/or cause citizens to not report crimes. Society should have indubitable confidence in the men and women of the criminal justice system. Law enforcement officers violating even the smallest rule could lead to more serious infractions. Syed (1997) states, "Every instance of corruption bends or violates a rule or law and, similar to the granting of impunity, may contribute to an officer's perceptions of the law as applying differently to different people and increase the ease with which violations can be rationalized." Having less than ethical persons in our criminal justice system can lead to a weakened society, the ruining of lives, and even add to crime.
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.
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,
Dempsey, J. S., & Frost, L. S. (2012). Police Ethics and Police Deviance. An Introduction to Policing (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
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).
Ortmeier, P.J. & Meese III, E. (2010). Leadership, ethics, and policing. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
There are many ethical violations that can occur when excessive force occurs some of them are unnecessary injuries or death, abuse of authority or entitlement, lack of integrity, and corruption. There are many cases in which the police must use excessive or some kind of force to control a situation and protect citizens but only a small fraction of all police encounters each year involves force (Alpert, 2010). Depending on what kind of equipment was used by the police to control the situation the injury can vary, some of the equipment that the police uses to control a situation in addition to their handgun are pepper spray, batons, or conducted energy devices (Alpert, 2010). An abuse of authority ethical violation from a police officer can be a serious nightmare for a police department because these incidents usually receive a lot of media coverage and can damage the reputation
Society impacts ethical behavior of law enforcement by holding them to a higher standard of expectation. Police officers act as protectors and liaisons in highly stressful situations with the power to make decisions over society. Holding this position requires trust and the ability to lead by example. Police officers may have to be able to recognize the ethical dilemmas, decide the
When making a decision should one consider ethics? Law enforcement throughout the years have face ethical issues. One of its main issue that law enforcement is the use of discretion. Many may say that there are officers out here not using their discretion wisely and it is one of the reason that leads to profiling/stereotyping different groups. Ethics in law enforcement needs to be follow because it allows things to be fair. When law enforcement seem unfair or bias this can cause an issue with the public and within law enforcement. There is no true direction and officer has to follow, but their own. Discretion should be used correctly and should be morally and legally justify. How can one correct this issue, when it has been happening for years? The issue may not end, but the issue can be improve to make sure that more officers are using it the way they were trained.
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.
Researchers openly stress that in the police system, a police officer’s actions reflect the values that a department holds. (Id, p.1) Applying values into the police system allowed officers to confidently make decisions without disturbing the performance of the department. (Id,
It is often said that power brings corruption, but in reality it is an individual’s lack of character, self-discipline, and integrity that leads to corruption. Law enforcement can bring many temptations on the job, and maintaining an up most level of personal integrity can often times be very difficult. The very nature of the job surrounds officers with all of the bad things that society, produces. There can be an endless amount of training and rules put into place to try and deter officers from committing unethical acts, but in the end it really just comes down to the specific individual and their willingness to do the right thing.
Ethics in the justice system is something that may have some harsh consequences if certain lines are crossed. Law enforcement is usually perceived to be ethically correct. With the recent history of officer involved shootings, we wonder how law enforcement really deals with ethics and morals daily. In the tutorial we reviewed, the situation that the second officer is put in is a tough one because of how many decisions he has to make in order to get the best outcome. If he was to use a deontological approach, he would most likely confront his partner and ask why he had to disregard the policies that have been put in place. The partner might get upset but he may also realize the mistakes he made may cost him to lose that case or face disciplinary
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).