Ethical Issue Analysis

According to Pollock (2017) several steps are set out to analyze dilemmas. Those steps are beginning with identifying the facts, Identify the relevant values and concepts, identify all possible dilemmas, decide which is most immediate moral or ethical issue, and then resolve the ethical or moral dilemma (Pollock, 2017).

A '''use of force continuum''' is a standard that affords law enforcement officials & security officers (police, probation, or corrections) with guidelines as to how much use of force may be used against a repelling subject in a given situation. In certain ways it is similar to the military’s escalation of force. The reason of these models is to clarify, both for officers and citizens, the complex subject of use of force by law officers. They are often vital parts of law enforcement agencies' use of force policies. Although various agencies have developed different models of the continuum, there is no universal standard model (Stetser, 2001, p. 36)

Beginning in late summer, this country became bombarded with stories in the news about police officers involved in some types of controversy. The controversy that started it all was an incident that happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Since August, there has been much discussion and public debate over whether a police officer’s use of deadly force against an unarmed teenager was justified. On August 9, 2014 a young man named Michael Brown was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson after he was stopped for walking in the middle of the street. Was the shooting of an unarmed teenager in Missouri an example of police using excessive force? Who decides what force is recommended or when it becomes excessive? To determine both these questions, we first must define what constitutes specific circumstances as excessive force. Officer Darren Wilson was not guilty of using excessive or lethal force if he felt his safety or the safety of others were in danger or if Michael Brown had surrendered peacefully and without resisting arrest.

The use of force is without a doubt an important aspect in policing. The decision to utilize any type of force comes from a multitude of recourses; department policies, training, situational variables and ethical systems. There are three major categories in which an officers use of force is categorized under; justifiable, excessive and deadly; with a thin line between justifiable and excessive. Cases where excessive force has been used, has lead to injuries, deaths, civil damages, officers convicted and sentenced to jail and police chiefs and elected officials being removed from office (Fyfe, 1988). It is an officer`s discretion in determining when the use of force is justifiable.

This can happen in the form of beating a person while making the arrest or using any unnecessary force against the person. Sometimes police beatings can be racially based or can happen due to an argument between the officer and the person. The use of excessive force in the law enforcement industry is not tolerated in any form. If a police officer is found guilty in using unnecessary force on a person they will be terminated from their job. Using unnecessary force is one of the more know types of police misconduct being that when excessive force is used on a person there is normally charges pressed on the officer and the case is brought into court and therefore into the media.

On June 5th In this video of a McKinney Texas police officer Eric Casebolt you first start off with two cops chasing someone we cannot see. One of the boys recording then gives what seems to be pepper spray and the police officer is very nice. Then we pan to the main culprit in this video. He forcefully tells a young African American teen, “I told you to stay”, he screams and pushes his head down. He then proceeds to everyone yelling, “Get you’re a**es down on the ground.” The officer yells and points a stick or something at the kids telling them to get In the grass. He points to these African American females and tell them to get out of here using vulgar language once again. He cuffs to African American boys and the kids beside them in the video are pleading and begging that he stop and saying they were just here for a birthday

The use of excessive force is the application of force beyond what is reasonably believed to be necessary to gain compliance from a subject in any given incident. For example, if a Transportation Security Officer body slams a passenger to the ground for not stepping to the side, this too would be considered using excessive

Although very little formal information is provided regarding the situation and the evidence surrounding it, I essentially chose this case because the media releases provided actual quotes from the officer’s testimony in court. The case was examined by an

Whenever a law enforcement officer places an individual under arrest or is involved in a deadly force scenario the officer has used some degree of force. The incidents where an office has to make a split second decision and use physical force to control a situation is known as “Use of Force.” The use of force varies as situations present themselves to the officer and they must decide what level of force is necessary to control the situation. Often the use of force is subject to much debate and not a year goes by without some media coverage of some law enforcement officer accused of using excessive force. In dozens of studies of police use of force there is no single,

Questionable behavior and complaints against officers can be filed by even the most violent of criminals. Often, the officer may restrain a potentially dangerous citizen, and be accused of excessive force. Overall, this results in not only a mark against the institution of law enforcement and the officer

Excessive force and resisting arrest: interfering with a law enforcement officer’s lawful ability to take a person into custody. In the movie, we can see the Sherriff use of excessive force after the offenders refused to comply with him in the bar. The sheriff was already upset about the situation and when he was asking them about the case rape case they started calling him names. He then beat them up before he booked them.

In order to find relevant information on the subject, parameters were set up to help identify the most pertinent and useful information. The articles used in this review needed to be current (published within the last 20 years). The articles moreover needed to include a suitable designed study and/or a suitable designed literature review in relevance to excessive force and the abuse of police authority. The reviewed literature included a thorough evaluation from an analysis of secondary data consisting of information gathered from criminal justice peer reviewed journal articles of when excessive force occurs the most and how force can be determined by organizational, individual and situational factors. Past law enforcement studies have

The ethical dilemma is a situation by which it’s difficult to determine whether a situation is can be handled without disappointing both sides. Therefore, an ethical dilemma exists when the right thing to do is clear or when members of the healthcare team cannot agree on the right thing to do. Ethical dilemmas require negotiation of different points of view (potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall 2011pg 78).

The use of force has always been a questionable tactic in law enforcement and security fields. Everyone always questions how much force is needed, was the force justifiable and could the officer have done something differently to deter the use of force. By teaching officers and protection agents what is the appropriate level of force and in what situations force can be stronger will help to prevent unnecessary questioning by the public and the media. Most agencies have guidelines and policies that outline the use of force. These guidelines describe the escalating continuum that is appropriate for officers and agents to use.

The ethical issue intensity was medium-high strength. There was more than one issue and each issue had a different level of intensity. The misuse of products had a low intensity, ethical whistleblowing had a medium-low level of intensity and the pesticide issue had high intensity. Disagreements over the intensity of the issues was resolved by discussing why we had different intensities and what each person’s idea was with the level of intensity they had.