Law Enforcement and Ethics Essay

Every day, law enforcement officers encounter danger while carrying out their duties. The foremost duty of law enforcement officers are to serve and protect citizens. Most law enforcement agencies do this successfully. However, many people view law enforcement officers as the enemy. People need to be better informed about law enforcement and why officers take specific actions in certain circumstances. In our society, police are in a very dangerous position when it comes to the amount of force they can use when dealing with an individual. Officers use discretion when deciding the best course of action for the situation, whether it be physical force, persuasion, or coercion. They must take the correct course of action, because if they are too lenient or to forceful, even when dealing with petty things, they can be reprimanded by superiors and the public. Should police use force? Which circumstances warrant use force and what are the limits of force they can use? These questions are often asked when police are compelled to use force.

Police officers are trained to read, write and analyze numbers. They are also trained how to handle firearms, identify non-lethal weapons, use defensive tactics effective, conduct search and seizure, driving techniques, investigate criminal acts and the laws of arrest, but how many police take a course on ethical conduct or learn the meaning of sworn oath? Some police officer feel ethics is not important and training is of low – priority. Law enforcement officers take oaths creates an ethical landmine. Officers have to weigh their personal values against colleague demands that may develop a hostile environment and cause ethical issues to flourish. When police officers demonstrate unethical practices, negative issues occur. Corruption scandals are painful reminders that officers need more

“Ethical issues regarding corruption and off-duty behavior have become an increasing challenge in criminal justice” (Writing, 1999-2013). Within the criminal justice system, ethics can be complicated by the moral implications of actions. Differences in cultures and different circumstances can affect the individual moral compass. However, all departments of criminal justice operate by a certain code of ethics and by certain standards. But those standards and ethics often become challenged due to issues relating to police brutality, off duty conduct and corruption that we hear about all of the time through the media.

Now that I have presented a brief understanding and background of the case against the five officers and the struggles police officers and the community face in South Camden, NJ, I will examine how five officers were led off of a virtuous path by failures of the individuals and the environmental role in their demise. Specifically, I will identify the unethical behavior and contributing factors, provide my ethical opinion on the situation, the effects on the community, and how the culture of Camden Police Department may have

Now that I have presented a brief understanding and background of the case against the five officers and the struggles police officers and the community face in South Camden, NJ, I will examine how five officers steered off of a virtuous path by the failures of the individuals and the environmental role in their demise. Specifically, I will identify the unethical behavior and contributing factors, provide my ethical opinion on the situation, the effects on the community, and how the

Facts: On October 13, 2005, in Lexington, Kentucky police officers set up a sting operation to catch a well-known drug dealer. They watched as the suspect made a sale of crack cocaine to a person and walked off as if this is a normal thing. The suspect was Mr. Hollis King, and he was hiding out in an apartment complex with some of his friends. The police watched as the suspect at hand made a transaction with someone selling those drugs. The officers then radioed out that the suspect was on the move and moving towards the entryway of an apartment building. The Lexington Police entered the apartment

“Officer Groome attempted to stop a 2003 Honda Civic on Oliver Avenue in the city of Chesapeake for stolen license plates. Officer Groome activated his lights and siren for the driver to pull over. The driver of the vehicle did not stop, ran multiple stop signs and red lights, and was driving in excess of 80 mph. The driver continued driving through South Norfolk area into the city of Norfolk. The vehicle came to a stop on Reservoir Avenue in the city of Norfolk. The driver was identified as the accused and the passenger got out of the vehicle and ran. The Norfolk police responded to the area with their K9 unit, and the accused was hiding underneath the crawl space of a house. The accused was found in possession of a dime bag of marijuana and the vehicle, property belonging to Paul Brady, which had been reported stolen on 09/26/2015, in the city of Chesapeake. The accused is not a licensed driver. The accused stated that he received this vehicle from a “friend.”

On 26 June 2017 at 1516 hours, Officers were dispatched to the area of 305 East Penn Street for a theft of a vehicle. Officer were advised the actor was a Rhiannon Meyer and that she had stolen her dad Dodge truck green in color with a plow on the front. and was last seen heading towards Main Street. Officer began to check the area of Main Street, when Unit 191 called out with the vehicle at 100 Pennsylvania Ave, in Shenandoah Heights. Your Affiant (Patrolman William Moyer) along with Patrolman Tyler Dissinger responded to Unit 191 (Chief Livergood) location. At arrival Chief Livergood had MEYER in custody along with the stolen vehicle. MEYER'S was still yelling about someone having a gun in the window of the residence and was not making sense

Three Detroit police officers from the narcotics division Lt. David Hansberry, Kevlin Omar Brown and Officer Bryan Watson, used their authority as law enforcement to arrange drug deals, pose traffic stops, falsify arrests and extort victims, in order to steal money and drugs that were then sold for profit. Items that were seized from arrest were never logged into evidence violating departmental policy.

When people think of police misconduct, they immediately think of police brutality. While police brutality is a form of police misconduct, the term is much broader. Police misconduct is any conduct that is outside the ethical code that officers are sworn to follow.

Ethics are very important in the Criminal Justice Field because it keeps up community and department moral and ensures that the right person will be charged with the right crime. It also ensures that justice will be served. If an officer has shown unethical behaviors in the past, who is to say that they won’t do it again? This loses faith and trust in the entire system and justice can never be fully served. Because of this, we must all do our parts in order to make sure that we, and our fellows, are practicing good ethics.

Ethics in the criminal justice system is customary when the administration measures are sometime virtuous and imperfect, attractive and unattractive and the ideas of production values are perceptive that this may be right and wrong. Working in the criminal justice system, every decision and results must meet the needs of the citizens and the law enforcement in regards to the balancing concern. The concerns are from prosecuting the guilty and respecting the right of the accused, protecting the victims, and creating a safe community. This paper will give analysis of the critical thinking concerning the relationship between ethics and professional behavior role of the law enforcement

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.

Ethics by definition states that it’s the study of morality. Ethics are the basis of our criminal justice system. From the arresting officers who take an oath to serve and protect, to the attorneys and courts, we assume the behavior and rules are ethically and morally sound. We as the public should think we are in good hands when it comes to the Criminal Justice System. I think we should have people in the system with good morals and great values. We want to be assured that our laws and those enforcing them are supported.

What are the standards in Police Ethics? By definition it is the Rules of conduct recognized in respect to police actions when dealing with a class of people, person or a particular group, culture, etc. In all the research I have done, books, articles and research papers I have read, I am hard pressed to find an ethicist without a political agenda or pure racist opinion, who believes that the policies should stand as written.