JJohnson Final Research Paper

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350 LUO

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Law

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Jan 9, 2024

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Disclosing Officer Untruthfulness to the Defense: Is a Liar’s Squad Coming to Your Town? Joanice L. Johnson Helms School of Government CJUS350: Criminal Justice Ethics (D01) Robert Roth December 11, 2023

2 Disclosing Officer Untruthfulness to the Defense: Is a Liar’s Squad Coming to Your Town? Introduction Integrity and honesty are essential qualities in law enforcement. A police officer with integrity and who is honest, ensures their professionalism and ethical values will gain the public's trust. However, once an officer displays unbecoming behavior, the officer's credibility is lost, and citizens will start to mistrust the officer and question the integrity of the officer's police department (Singh, 2022). Thus, it is important that officers always remain professional and truthful; also, it is essential that police leaders hold dishonest police officers accountable. This paper will discuss disclosing an officer's untruthfulness by examining a scenario of an officer who lied about misusing departmental equipment. This paper will also determine the most appropriate and effective disciplinary action that should be imposed on the officer for his misconduct. The Scenario An officer’s dishonesty has placed me in an ethical dilemma. I must determine if the officer’s dishonesty warrants his termination, or if I should impose a less severe disciplinary action, such as suspension or a verbal reprimand. To help me resolve this ethical dilemma, and determine the appropriate disciplinary action, I must ensure I have all the facts, identify the fundamental values, identify all dilemmas, and decide the most immediate dilemma (Pollock, 2019). The Facts My deputy chief of police brought to my attention that a veteran officer was being investigated for inappropriately using one of the computers in the patrol division. An internal

3 investigation determined that the officer used the division’s computer to search pornographic websites. When confronted with this allegation, the officer denied any knowledge of this incident. Upon further investigation, the computer crimes analyst determined that the officer’s log-on password was used to enter these websites. The officer then admitted to his wrongdoing and stated this would never happen again. It should be noted, however, that the investigation never mentioned if the officer was searching adult or child pornographic websites. Had they specified this, the disciplinary action would not be this difficult. The Key Values Officers’ behaviors both on and off duty, matters to police departments and to the communities that officers are sworn to protect and serve. Because police officers are both crime fighters and public servants, their honesty and integrity are crucial in building trust and performing their duties effectively. While they have the discretion to enforce the laws and maintain order for public safety, they also have the discretion to provide social services to meet the needs of all people, including criminals. As a result, society expects officers to be always professional, reliable, and truthful (Pollock, 2019; Singh, 2022). The Ethical Dilemmas Between 2011 and 2014, the city of Baltimore, which is the largest city in the state of Maryland, had to pay approximately $5.7 million in settlements due to Baltimore City’s police officers making false arrests and police brutality (White et al., 2018). In 2011, the San Francisco Police Department was involved in a publicized scandal due to officers falsifying official reports and affidavits, and conducting illegal searches (Pollock, 2019). Professional misconduct is detrimental to police departments. When police officers are dishonest and corrupt, they risk their police departments being embroiled in scandals, lengthy

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