The Kansas City Case Study: Ethical Dilemmas Affect Others?

In society we will always faces ethical and unethical choices. There are time when we cannot always chose the ethical approach. Other decisions primarily only affect us as individuals. However, when you are in the public eye such as police officer your decisions affect others. In this paper the discussion will be based on the Kansas City case study. In this case study there are a few unethical behaviors that had occurred. One unethical decision was to commit the act of conspiracy. Bell, Forrest and Sillings teamed together to steal from an active crime investigation. The second unethical decision was when these individuals stole sums of cash and personal property from the victim while executing search warrants. The three individuals committed two primary crimes: conspiracy and theft. These officers were who took the oath to protect and serve the community were doing the opposite. Bell, Forrest and Silllings belonged

Conspiracy is defined as “An agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act, along with an intent to achieve the agreement 's goal.” (Legal Information Institute, n.d) The three police officers worked together and planned the crime together. No one individual did more than the other and they needed each other’s help to pull the crime off. Individuals sometimes have a hard time trusting law enforcement for reasons someone may or may not understand. However, it is officers like mentioned in the case study who ruin the department’s reputation. Each one of these officers acted in the same demeanor with the same intentions. That could easily give the impression that they Kansas City Police Department is corrupt and untrustworthy. Not only was their decision affecting the case they were handling, but their jobs and the reputation of the department. Each officer involved easily could have made the decision to not partake in the crime. However, they all agreed steal and intimidate the