Ethical Issues In Law Enforcement

There are many key issues that have to be considered by law enforcement agencies when building relationships with the communities they serve. First and for most they have to adequately and fairly address complaints made by members of the community. The police have to provide the same service to minority communities as they would provide a predominately white community. The effect of providing good service could mean that the community will slowly build their trust with police officers. In the long run this will reduce tensions and build trust between the two groups. By building trust the police know they can count on the community when it comes to crime prevention. Reducing the publics fear of crime translates to increased cooperation between

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

The review board collectively decided that there is no misconduct, in this situation because this officer was just doing his job. Officer White used utilized a policing know as community policing; when you place a group of officers in an area to get familiar with the locals. ("Community Policing Defined", 2014) This means that these officers will do whatever is necessary to gain the trust of the people in the community. ("Community Policing Defined", 2014) In this situation, Officer White was doing just that, interacting with the kids in a positive way, and building the trust and confidence in the community. Instead of making a big deal about the noise they were making, he made them feel comfortable enough to play with them, building the trust between the public and the police, because as stated above over 5 million people viewed this

Police officers not only have to follow a set of rules and legislation, but they also must behave in a decent manner while on duty as well as off duty. Unfortunately, nobody is perfect, and police officers also make wrong decisions that could jeopardize the integrity of their police department. Often people know something they do is wrong. However, they still do it because they feel no harm will come to them or it they think nobody will ever find out. For instance, cheating on a test is wrong, but people do it because they think they can 't get away without the professor finding out.

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

In the primary "wrongdoing", the officer was in full uniform when non-military personnel drew him nearer. The casualty had a serious cut on her head and her lip and the blood was splashed into her shirt. She told the officer that she had been looted and beaten. She gave the officer a depiction of the culprit that purported burglarized and beat her. The depiction was to some degree dubious. She let him know that the culprit was wearing a red shirt and white jeans. She said that she did not see the culprit 's face in light of the ski veil so in this way she did not know the sexual orientation or ethnicity of the culprit. She could tell the officer that the culprit was 5 '8" and had a firearm. She additionally told the officer that the

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.

As women entered the law enforcement profession , on equal footing with men ,one of the primary concerns women have to struggle when obtaining the title in field , was that a woman would be able to control a large violent offender. In the 1970's The 350 Pound Man in the Alley was used when it came to hiring women. However,the job standard test as of today has changed when hiring women include

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

Recently the US Department of Justice revealed its findings following a request by current Baltimore City Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, in light of the Freddie Gray incident. According to the Baltimore Sun, the results detail gross violations of the civil rights of Baltimore City residents by the Baltimore Police Department. The probe also indicated numerous unethical policing practices by the Baltimore Police Department that was targeted at specific city demographics.

Law enforcement has one key ethical issue: integrity. Dictionary.com defines integrity as “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.” According to Cartwright, G. (2010) those who work in law enforcement “deal with temptation continually.” He continues by explaining that while most officers make the right decision, some do not. When the actions of law enforcement violate both ethical and lawful conduct, and those actions become public; “there is a lot of shock and confusion”. These transgressions must be investigated and addressed.

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.

In the last past years, our country has observed numerous cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have witnessed police brutality take place in front of their houses. Officers are faced with many threatening situations every day, forcing them to make vital decisions and to expect the vilest and hope for the best. The law enforcement officers granted the ability to take any citizens' privileges to restraint and sometimes even their lives. Besides, with that sort of authority comes responsibility. For this reason, that is one major fear with that amount of discernment granted to law-enforcement officers. Consentquey, there are times they must have, to execute use force or even the use lethal force.

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.