s or group 's behavior. 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 …show more content…
Being a disciple can help change law enforcement itself and also how the community see their local law enforcement. In order for there to be ethics there has to be integrity to law enforcement. You have to show integrity to the position of law enforcement you are integrated to. Showing yourself how integrated you are with law enforcement can help yourself on further situations that you can encounter in law enforcement. There are many in the law enforcement who are integrated and have good ethics, but what about the community do they have what they
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,
The ethical theory I will rely on for my scenario is formalism. Considering that this is a public servant and that the main goal of formalism is to carry out obligation and duty, formalism is the theory that will apply. Adhering to this theory means you treat everyone, regardless of status or relationship, the same. It would also mean that you could not use one person as a means to an end (Albanese, 2012). Therefore, doing a favor for the mayor for personal gain, such as a promotion, is clearly not alright.
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.
This essay is examining an ethical dilemma I may encounter as a Police Officer. The New Zealand Police (n.d.) have stated that the police officer’s main roles are to seek to prevent crime, advance public safety, find offenders, and uphold law and order. Due to the role of maintaining law and order, a Police Officer should not be rebelling against the law. This relates to the ethical dilemma I am researching; Whether or not a Police Officer should report illegal activity by friends or family. In this assignment, I will be analyzing both of the arguments this dilemma holds; what happens if I report the illegal activity, and what will happen if I do not report the illegal activity? in relation to virtue ethics.
There are three parts that make up the law enforcement code of ethics. The first part consists of equal protect to the people. In corrections it is equal protection to the inmates, regardless of race, color, sex, and class. The second part requires all officers to follow and adhere to the law, ensuring civil liberties not violated under the constitution. Third part, as a figure of authority officers must not abuse their authority for personal gain (Lawrence,
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,
Law Enforcement is a person or agency responsible for enforcing the law. With this being said, many businesses can be an example of law enforcement. Law enforcement can be policeman, lawyers, or just anybody that has the right to enforce the law. We are given laws for safety, and to protect our rights as citizens. One would think everyone should respect and follow the laws given. Once upon a time in The United States, every citizen respected the laws, and our morals were upright. Through out the years, our morals, or ethics, changed. Law enforcements got stronger, figured out they are untouchable, resulting in going against the law, and going against our moral beliefs. Although law enforcement can be helpful to citizens, their roles of ethics
One may ask themselves, if law enforcement officers are working to protect the public, why would they commit corruption like they do? As it is described above, corruption is a big part in the law enforcement sector of society. The entire concept is quite complex although it may seem self explanatory to many people. Learning the many types of corruption and misconduct is only the beginning, then, to understand why the officers commit the conduct for which they do. With all this, it becomes apparent to the certain measures that need to be taken to rid society and police departments of the conduct that is constantly present.
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
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
In order to have effective policing I believe integrity and ethics play a huge part in helping build trust within communities. Sound conduct by police improves community interactions, enhances communication, and promotes shared responsibility for addressing crime and disorder. There are three ways that police departments can strengthen community relationships just by training officers about procedural justice, bias reduction, and racial reconciliation. If we implement these concepts, we can create an environment in which effective partnerships between the police and citizens can flourish.
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.
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.
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).