Importance Of Accountability In Criminal Justice

The criminal justice system is one of the most important components in the public service system. Since it is a system that citizens encounter daily it would be most beneficial for those who are employed to behave as ethical leaders. Leadership skills and ethical behavior are both parts of the duties of any officer serving the law. Often employees are placed in quick decision situations that can have fatal outcomes if not handled properly. By ensuring that all officers of the law have a set of functioning ethical leadership skills can not only develop a well-rounded individual, but also builds the relationship between the community they serve to protect. The police and other officers of the law have great discretion and power over an individual which makes having responsible, ethically behaving persons on the front lines even more important. With the right training and education, ethical officers can set the bar and improve the quality of life of the community they serve as well as other officers.

Organizational climate is essential in developing a culture of incorruptible individuals and this climate is set by the organizations leaders. Within the SCORE unit of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department (KCKPD) at the time of the indictment, it was not clear if leaders set a tone of ethical conduct, nor did it appear that principled conduct was the cornerstone of the command leadership philosophy. Specifically, all ethical standards for Kansas City Police Department are derived from Wyandotte County Unified Government code of ethics and the police department lacks police specific philosophies toward ethical conduct (Unified Government Ordinance, 2009). Although, the International Chiefs of Police have established a code of honor adopted by many police departments, it is unclear bases on empirical information what KCKPD leadership expected of their Police officers. For instance, it is vital for executive to formulate as stated by Martin (2011), “an agenda that explains the moral purposes of the department” (para. 6). Therefore, not making an ethics based agenda and delivering a repetitive and deliberate focus on such an agenda to all levels is one failure by leadership to have contributed to creating a perceived environment of unethical conduct. On the other hand, senior managers cannot root out corruption without captains, lieutenants, sergeants and senior officers. Middle and first-line leader are essential to the command structure ensuring high standards are

Within the Serpico movie there was many examples of the lack of police accountability compared to police being held accountable. In that era of policing corruption was at an all-time high. When Serpico tried to do the right thing and make police accountable for their actions he was almost killed. In today’s society things have changed. Police are being held more accountable especially due to the fact with all the technology that is now being

In a survey 52% of police officers said it is common for law enforcement officials to disregard the inappropriate conduct of other officers. While 61% of officers claimed they usually do not report serious abuse that they have directly witnessed by colleagues. Yes, we all know that there are always going to be a few corrupt and unethical people within every profession, but these statistics show that within the police officer profession there are far more than a few corrupt and unethical

Police accountability has been seen in the forefront of the criminal justice system much more nowadays, compared to the past. Mainly because of technology. With the use of body cameras and cameras inside police vehicles, their every encounter is now captured on surveillance, which is a useful and wise idea. If I was a police officer I would want video surveillance to capture my encounter with someone. The reason being is to protect myself. We have seen how the media change stories around and make police look like criminals. Citizens look at police officer 's as if they are not human and they’re not able to make a mistake. When police officers are sworn in, they take an oath to be held to a higher standard than an ordinary citizen. However,

The American Criminal Justice system is arguably one of the most fair systems in the world. However, like anything it has its flaws. There are many flaws but the largest three, in my opinion, would be the fact that we have the highest incarceration rate of any other country, the high penalties for drug users, as well as the jury system. The high incarceration rates and the penalties for drug users affect each other but they are still issues on their own. In fact, many of issues within our system coincide within each other.

“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.” (Peter Drucker) An effective manager can be the difference between a successful law enforcement organization or its failure. There are several theories on effective management in law enforcement and the business world alike. Some of those theories can cross over and be helpful for a law enforcement manager. A manager can have the knowledge of all theory relative to law enforcement management, but without understanding several key concepts, the manager will in turn not be effective. An effective law enforcement manager is responsible for far more than just managing employees, unlike the business world. Effective law enforcement managers’ decisions likely impact the safety of the citizens within the jurisdiction, and that is the greatest responsibility. There are several components that will allow a law enforcement manager to be effective. Out of those components there are three primaries that are of upmost concern. Those three components are effective communication, organizational skills, and empowerment.

The United States criminal justice system can be described as flawed in many ways. Some of these flaws have a larger impact on the people of this country than others. Two of the largest problems we have currently revolve around the issues of wrongful convictions and prosecutorial misconduct. The whole criminal justice system revolves around making sure people follow the laws put in place, and if they do not punish them for their wrongdoing. This system is also about affording the same rights to every person that goes through the criminal justice system.

Upon review of the Rixton Case study, indications of inadequacies in and ineffective management on behalf of the Rixton Police Chief provide evidence of non-compliance of departmental procedures and the lack of accountability of the Chief of police to his officers and citizens and that of the officers alike to the citizens or Rixton. As the Rixton case study indicates the Chief Eager has “little administrative ability” and “he makes no effort to determine whether his officers understand his policies and procedures...” (Police Administration, 2016), as such, an inference can be made that the principles adopted by the officers is in direct correlation with the lack of accountability within the department. Cordner suggests that assumption should

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.

While the Reform Era worked to professionalize police, as society became more complex, so did the role of the police officer. The Community Policing Era was developed as a result of the need to develop cooperation and positive relationships between the police and public. What developed out of this era was an essential element of community policing – public accountability. Police officers became accountable to their supervisors who in turn became accountable to the community. Accountability can be seen as an honest evaluation of achievement based on clearly defined objectives. Many of these objectives are defined by complex community and social problems; as such police officers require the capacity and flexibility to work on them in a variety of styles and employing a variety of strategies.

Imagine living in a world with no security, no protection. What’s going to protect people from serial killers, rapists, and murderers living in same city or town? In the criminal justice system, there are hard workers, called criminal investigators or detectives that go to work every day whose job is to find these offenders and keep them off the streets. Crimes are being committed every second of the day, and the number of criminals increasing which is why the world needs more detectives on the job. People who want to make the community a safer place and are serious about the job need to take into consideration about learning the job responsibilities and educational requirements. Police officers also need to work harder

This paper takes into consideration many of the challenges that are present in the current United States criminal justice system. It engages in the discussion of changes that should be made in order to increase the public value in public agencies including the police and the courts. Initializing these reforms can create the necessary public value for a more democratic justice system that serves the needs and reflects the values of society.

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.

Ileta, you made some good points here. The victim could indeed be disoriented and feel unable to adjust properly to the situation. Sometimes the situation is so dangerous that the victim will hope the offender will just stop or go away without adding future harm. The problem with not reporting is the offender may be aware of the non-report and take advantage of the situation by coming back a second time. That is sort of like a bully scenario, where the bully continues to offend the same individual because the individual fears to take action. I’ve never been afraid to report a crime. Sometimes, I’d rather handle the situation myself, but that could lead to negative consequences on my part. It seems awkward to say, but a good majority of people