Ethical Dilemmas In Law Enforcement

Discretion is defined as “ power of free decision or latitude of choice within certain legal bounds” ( merriam-webster dictionary ).Police have discretion in most jobs they take on while out in the field. This could range from a wide variety of choices from drawing his weapon to shooting his weapon, or just issuing a traffic ticket or smaller violation. With such a wide gap between little choices to life or death a policeman’s discretion can either make or break himself, his department, and how the citizens look at policing today. Regardless discretion must be used in a lot of the police officers day, and when it's used right it gives the officer and community to have a more just society.

There is a significant health issue facing the public as well as law enforcement every day, suicide. The numbers surrounding suicide are shocking effects people of all backgrounds. In the year 2010 more than 38,000 adults committed suicide. Then in 2011 around 1 million adults admitted to attempting suicide, while 8 million had serious suicidal thoughts. Law Enforcement officers are at an even higher risk then most due to experiencing such a large number of risk factors. These factors include but are not limited to poor physical health, access to fire arms, domestic abuse, substance abuse, exposure to violence and suicide; depression, anxiety and other mental diseases. These factors lead to an above average number of officer suicides every

In order for a Police agency to prevent and deter Police misconduct, there must be a definition to what actions and behaviors that the term will encompass. The term ‘police corruption’ has been used to describe many activities: bribery; violence and brutality; fabrication and destruction of evidence; racism; favoritism or nepotism. Many different scholars differ in their own examples of the definition. Before attempting to the question of whether a precise definition is possible, it is worth examining the range of activities that might be included within a broad discussion of corruption. In (Bayley and Perito, 2011), it is defined as police corruption is a contested phrase with narrow and broad meanings. Narrowly

On January 15, 2016, a Gainesville, Florida police officer named Bobby White responded to a report of kids playing loudly in the streets. (Earl, 2016) Upon arrival, the officer parked his patrol car and notice a tall boy playing basketball, he asked the boy “Can you believe someone's calling to complain about kids playing basketball in the street?” (Earl, 2016) The boy didn’t respond, and instead Officer White smiled and stated that he had no issue with these children playing in the street, he then procced to playing basketball with the kids. (Earl, 2016) A Gainesville Police Department spokesman named Ben Tobias told CBS News, that these kids were out exercising not sitting inside playing video games and that at times society forgets that

Police officers are generally well-respected in American society. They should be, since officers protect the public from drunk drivers, gunmen and other threats to the commonwealth. However, in light of uncovered events involving the misconduct of police officers, these events call into question the ability of police officers to successfully protect and serve the American people. However, in 2010, 6,613 law enforcement officers were reported for involvement in misconduct which varied from excessive force, sexual misconduct et cetera (Packman). Having 6,613 reported cases of police misconduct in America is ridiculous, especially since it is hard validating the claims against officers and it is difficult to punish officers because of this lack of evidence. While the purpose of police officers in society is to protect the commonwealth of the people, the amount of police misconduct in the United States of America involving excessive force and sexual misconduct is detrimental to the credibility of all police officers. This in turn causes rifts and distrust among the American people concerning officers. Police misconduct can be reduced in American society by requiring police officers to wear cameras while on duty, having a clear definition on what excessive force is and defining how much force is legal for an officer to utilize, and better training geared to improve overall conduct with citizens, especially mentally ill citizens.

Police discretion is an issue for American policing because how police use their discretion can greatly impact the public’s view on the police. First what police discretion is must be defined, “the leeway that officers enjoy in selecting from more than one choice in carrying out their work” (Mastrofski, 2004). This definition accurately sums up an ability the police use every single day that affects the public. The police can use discretion for almost any situation they encounter. There are many reason the police can exercise their own discretion the way they do, usually through personnel experience or departmental policy. While every person exercise discretion on a daily basis the reason police discretion is an issue is because they are agents of a government force that are allowed by the public to enforce the rules set down by members of the legislature that are elected by the public. Discretion for the police arises because of the individual subjectivity that each officers use when assessing an incident that requires police attention. An example is that Officer A does not arrest a teenage for underage drinking, he instead pour out the remaining alcohol and tells the youth to go home and that he better never catch him drinking again. In the same situation Officer B arrest the youth for underage drinking. The way these officers handle the situation different is police discretion. Officer B may have had a young relative that was involved in a drunk driving accident, either

Why is it that America, a country of freedom and opportunity, is the country that is stripping its people of their freedom the most often? It is unfortunate that everyday, police officers break their vows to “remain composed and respectful” and avoid behaving in an “abusive, oppressive, harassing, bullying, victimising or offensive” way (Swinford). This nation that boasts to the world about its benevolent treatment to its citizens has a sinister way of treating people differently depending on their various traits. It becomes more and more obvious with each succeeding case that America’s law enforcement teams are not as colorblind as they should be and claim to be; people, especially those of color, are being incarcerated at an alarming rate. The United State’s incarcerated population increased by over 500% over the last 40 years, rising to about 2.3 million people (SentencingProject). While it is not practical to expect our police officers to be able to apprehend every single criminal, it should not be too much to ask that they do it in a fair and unbiased manner. Protests such as Black Lives Matter still happen today because there is still inequality happening on a large scale everyday, especially in our law enforcement system. Minorities are the primary victims of the whole issue. It is ironic that America, a nation built on freedom, has a critical problem of mass incarceration. Although the United States pledges to be a nation of equality and opportunity, the surplus

The article of 12 year-old Tamir Rice puts the audience in awe again even after the incident regarding Michael Brown. As mentioned this event happened so close to the indictment of the police officer who shot Michael Brown so it has enraged the community. Rice was at a local park aiming his gun at people, someone reported it and when police arrived and try to talk to the boy he put his hand on his waist like reaching for the gun. The police officer took two shots, to which the boy later died in the hospital. When the police inspected the gun they figured out that it was a bb gun. (Bever, 2014) One can connect this case with that of Police Discretion, one may feel that the action that the police officer took but others might think it was uncalled for. Unfortunately, stuff like this happens often and some of the times the whole situation can be avoided if it is thought out before action is taken.

For this assignment I got to research many interesting things. First I learned what CPTED is and what theory it is based on. Next, I found a previous Goldstein award finalist: Operation Safe Clubs: Enforcement and Situational Problem-Oriented Policing (Miami Police Department). After finding a Goldstein award finalist, I evaluated the questions given to me about the problems they were attempting to address, how they determined their best course of action, the response, and how they measured their success or failure.

At the beginning of the video, the spokesperson indicates that ninety-five percent of criminal cases enter pleas and never go to trial. With such a large amount, it is inevitable that innocent people will enter the criminal justice system. The individuals in society expect prosecutors and defense attorneys to act ethical at all times, however, this video highlights misconduct that likely occurs everyday. We see numerous examples of ethical issues and dilemmas throughout the entirety of the video, which can lessen the public's faith in the criminal justice system when these problems are brought to light.

Discretion is a necessary skill to have as a law enforcement officer. Discretion is the use of

When looking at the interaction between local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, we have seen in our country that there can be extreme misusage of power and even abuse of power that has profoundly affected members of the minority races McNamara & Burns, 2009). One issue that I have personally encounter between myself and law enforcement officers in my community is them attempting to strong arm me into believing the lies that they were telling me when they were looking for my cousin. Law enforcement officers have the constitutional right to our right lie, deceive, and manipulate members of the community that they encounter during an investigation (White, 2001). But law enforcements ability to achieve their goals in an inquiry may

In this country we are seeing an increase in ethical violations in the field of law enforcement. I will go into detail about some of the main ethical issues we are seeing today and what can be done to prevent such acts from happening. When one officer is being unethical it has a huge effect on how the public views law enforcement as a whole. Many officers go undetected for a long time before getting caught, but an officer committing ethical violations will have their day it’s just a matter of time. In order to improve this growing problem we must first understand why there is such a problem in the field of law enforcement.

Law enforcement has a standard that they are required to maintain at all test no mater the circumstances. It is completely unconstitutional for law enforcement to violate the rights of anyone. The job of law enforcement is to enforce laws that are set by the constitution and the state they are employed with. Once law enforcement begins to violate the civil liberty of citizens, it creates a wedge between law enforcement and the communities they serve. In our society law enforcement is the pillar that enforces law and if they started operating on their own accord, and interpret law as they deem fit, it will destroy our democratic process. We are a country that believes in our constitutional liberties and there is nothing that makes it ethically

Jonas committed a crime based on the evidence found in the house by his mom. He killed Lynn and keeps her bracelet plus, he denied any relation to the incident. His mom knows and did not alert the authority.