Ethical Dilemma Paper

It is important that police officers be ethical especially while on the job. An officer’s

My first interviewee officers jack Davidson, patrolman from Somers point police department. When interviewing Patrolman Davidson, I found the following to be his impressions of the police force in general. Officer Davidson spoke of why ethics and character are important in the field of law enforcement. His response was that ethics and character go hand in hand. In law enforcement it seems that there are so many reasons to do the right thing. The reasons began with public opinion and also should include their influence on the youth who will be growing up to be citizens of the city, state, or country. If a police officer does not behave with

Ultimately this course provided me with new ideas on how to handle certain situations in several criminal justice occupations. This course relates very well to officer discretion, corruption and discrimination. In today’s society police officers are faced with problematic situation each day and although we cannot teach fight or flight in a classroom we can try to learn what not to do in a difficult situation. When observing the different controversial decisions that are being made, you learn that when police officers are faced with critical and life changing decisions officers do not have the convenience of time. The decisions are made while that person has adrenalin rushing through their bodies and time moving faster than any person can anticipate. This is the synopsis of ethical issues, the different controversial decisions that must be made as a police officer, judge or correctional officer. What is the correct decision being the topic for discussion? A discussion in which the professor allows all voices to be heard so that we all can learn from one another perspectives.

As a police officer, the major objectives are to maintain order, enforce the law, protect one’s property, and to save lives. In addition, police are divided into two roles based on how they perform their duties. The two roles of a police officer are a public servant and a crime fighter. A police officer whose role as a public servant is to serve all types of people, as well as criminals. Public servants regularly provide advice and make judgments as to the degree of risk they should take with the public. Many decisions involving risk are relatively easy to make, but others are complex and significant consequences (Kernaghan and Langford, 2016). These risks may involve using force and the consequences could be media backlash or a potential termination. Public servants abide by the oath and uphold the integrity and honor of the organization as an officer. Also, public servant officers like to play it safe because they like to be known as ordinary citizens who like to go home to their

Over the past several years, the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office has seen a drastic increase in crystal methamphetamine use coupled with a significant decrease in effective confidential informants. The recent trend in methamphetamine use seems to be shifting towards a form of the drug that is smuggled from Mexico, as opposed to traditional homemade manufactured methamphetamine. Combating the methamphetamine trend has remained a top priority for the sheriff’s office, however effective narcotics investigations rely on the use of credible confidential informants to make controlled purchases and provide intelligence. Informants over the past several years have become harder to find because of several factors both internally within the agency

Police executives have always had different issues within the police department. Most police executives try to find a quick fix in order to solve the issue of police misconduct. Police misconduct is defined as inappropriate action taken by police officers in relation with their official duties (Police Misconduct Law & Legal Definition, n.d.). In order to solve this issue, one must acknowledge their different challenges, overcome the “code of silence”, and find out the role of organizational culture.

Police “officers work and live in a constantly changing environment in which they are exposed to a myriad of ethical conflicts. When either unprepared or unaware, police officers are more likely to “go with the flow” than they would be if they were adequately prepared to face potentially ethical risks.” (Gilmartin & Harris, 1998) Most ethical violations are committed because the officer is exposed to a situation in which he was inadequately prepared. The lack of time to think about the situation before committing an ethical violation has detrimental life changing consequences. Police work can be very exciting and very rewarding but if not properly prepared and trained an officer can easily find himself involved in an ethical violation. Understanding the issues and being mentally prepared will help police officers become more responsible and make better

Ethics is a crucial part for anyone holding a position in public office. Public trust is crucial to maintaining a democratic republic. Law enforcement plays a major part in keeping citizens safe and helping keep society from falling into anarchy. In this aspect, it’s important that law enforcement officers maintain integrity with the amount of power that they hold while performing their duties. “Over the past few decades, great strides have occurred in the law enforcement profession.

Law enforcement is an honorable profession, and requires everyone within the criminal justice system to have ethics, integrity, professionalism and public trust. It is our daily tests which reinforce our values and morals. Although, my example appears to be a very difficult moral dilemma for the police officer. However, it is honor, courage and respect which will help him to do the right thing, and doing the right thing is being

"A policeman’s first obligation is to be responsible to the needs of the community he serves…The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which an honest police officer can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around.", -Frank Serpico.

Law enforcement ethics are critical to any agency or department entirely, including the individual that is sworn under oath and adheres to ethical endeavors that reflect their individual character and their family. It is merely impossible to have law enforcement ethics without including a certain type of conduct that coincides with ethics (Bethel, 2015). In particular, ethics have to be structured by the code of conduct that is expected of the sworn officer and they create a balance between the two. My research consists of the Canons of Police Ethics from 1957 as it is still applied to modern policing. The Canons of Police Ethics, distributed in 1957 and composed by a Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, established

“Officers live and work in a constantly changing and dynamically social context in which they are exposed to a myriad of ethical conflicts. When either unprepared or unaware, officers are more likely to "go with the flow" than they would be if they were adequately prepared to face potentially ethical risks.”(Gilmartin, Harris)

            Police officers in the law enforcement have a agreed set of common goals. According to John Swales article, “The Concept of Discourse Community states, “These public goals may be formally inscribed in documents” (471). In the law enforcement, the police officers have a code of ethics. Police Officers who join the community will have to agree to these ethics. The code of ethics is important to members of the law enforcement because they agree to core values of serving and protecting the public community. One of the core values police officers share in common is being dedicated to enhance public safety and reducing the incidence of crimes. The code of ethics is also important for Polices Officers because they must agree to the ethics before joining the police force. They are also committed to leadership. Each Police Officer individually needs to be a lender in his or her own responsibility. The purpose having a responsibility in the

We rarely go deeper into why the cops do what they do. Cops are trained to maintain social order and stay safe, but “emotional aspect of a police career is given far less, if any, attention” (Gilmartin, 2002, pp. 7-8). The struggles and stresses of the job often seep into the day-to-day lives of police officers (Gilmartin, 2002, p. 47), and eventually the nonpolice aspects of their lives are severely damaged or cease to exist (Gilmartin, 2002, pp. 69-70). This kind of stress and strain is psychologically damaging. Eventually officers “[break] or [ignore] administrative rules,” even leading to criminal violations (Gilmartin, 2002, p. 108). The question is how can we blame them? When cops must withstand constant violence and fear in the name of their job, how can their core values not be compromised, and how can they avoid losing their humanity (Gilmartin, 2002, p. 27)?

Police, as well as all other field in law enforcement are held to a higher standard of work quality, especially when pertaining to their professionalism and preforming to the limit of their responsibilities and their duties. While society would like to believe that they have a basic understanding of the responsibilities of police, which in simple terms is to protect and serve, there has been an ongoing controversial debate of either police are upholding to their duties and preforming them in a professional manner and if the manner does any justice to the oath they serve under. There is also a basic understanding of responsibilities that society should have of their police and other law enforcement officials, which may aid to the reduction on conflict between police and the communities they serve and enforce officers to act in a more