Pros And Cons For The Position Of Police Officers

Law enforcement in its entirety has responsibilities to uphold. They have the legal, ethical, and moral obligation to conduct themselves accordingly every day, whether it be on or off duty. Understanding what contributes to law enforcement officers to commit unethical acts is quit difficult. It falls along the lines of understand why serial killer commit their heinous acts of murder. Using the case study of the Kansas City Police Department SCORE unit we will describe the unethical behaviors that took place, what contributed to the unethical behavior, and the leadership role throughout the Kansas City Police Department SCORE. The Department having lost all credibility of being well organized and ethical.

Hiring police officers to perform private security work has positive aspects and potential pitfalls. Business owners vary in their opinion on hiring police officers. Liability and cost are reasons some prefer to hire private security guards or take other security measures. Other business owners prefer the training, professionalism, deterrence, and authority that come with hiring a police officer. Due to lawsuits involving off-duty police officers, the Courts have had to develop tests to determine when a moonlighting police officer is working under the authority of the private company or in the role of a peace officer. Issues have arisen about the

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (2015), police departments in the past, were more concerned with screening out the bad applicants, however, a new approach is being used to ensure the best applicants are chosen. Police agencies have begun using a system that emphasizes on building systems that reinforce a culture of integrity by reflecting core values. Research found that it is more effective for law enforcement agencies to adopt a culture where integrity is an organizational responsibility rather than emphasizing personal ethics or morality.

Police integrity which is their trustworthiness and sincerity is a frequent topic throughout media, academia, and all law enforcement organizations. One controversy is that police training cause recruits to act against moral standards. The present study examined recruits integrity, which was measured at the beginning and end of police academy training. There were three different training formats that were observed, social desirability, and self-reported emotional intelligence. Results indicated that participants started with momentous higher than moderate levels of integrity, and training had no significant brunt on their integrity scores. Law enforcement organizations focused on ways to guidance their employees maintained high levels of ethical decision making.

It is generally respected that the police in any given society have a troublesome occupation to satisfy. Managing culprits and putting themselves in damages path on an everyday premise is without a doubt, a splendid calling. Despite the fact that seen as troublesome, there is a basic notion in the overall population that the occupation of law authorization officers is moderately clear. Basically, their employment is to capture the "terrible folks". This is consistent with a point, an extensive an aspect of their responsibilities is to capture these supposed "awful folks" be that as it may it is not as direct and straightforward as individuals would trust it to be. Police are confronted with intense good choices on an everyday premise. They

The duty of a police officer is to deter crime while protecting and aiding the community. Citizens put trust into law enforcement to follow through and uphold police behavioral standards as well. Training is the largest factor associated with improper police conduct. In this paper, I will examine the importance of law enforcement training and how the lack of it, results in improper conduct, throughout the police agency and community. I will argue that there are many negative issues with law enforcement dating back many centuries. In addition, I will include a significant Supreme Court case and how it impacted all law enforcement and led to new regulations.

First of allUnethical behavior relates to the Law enforcement system, since according to Martin ( 2011), he states that Research into police corruption offers some understanding of the phenomenon in the hope of rooting out this behavior that serves to undermine the overall legitimacy of law enforcement. Theories on the role of society in law enforcement, the negative influence of an officer’s department, and a person’s own natural tendency to engage in unethical behavior have been offered as explanations of police corruption.”(Martin 2011) explains on how Police corruption is one of the largest unethical behaviors in our society today, and Police corruption still exists, because of the fact that many law enforcement agencies have avoided hiring candidates

Unlike an office job, an individual seeking to become a police officer has many chances to save lives, the ability to enjoy the variety of duties assigned to him or her and have the opportunity to help the individuals within the community to change for the better. Law enforcement officers rely on their trustworthiness, decisions, understanding, insightfulness, and endurance. Many opportunities do not allow rational thinking, but upon absorption of important information must make decisions quickly before jumping into action.

A police officer’s tasks are to protect their community and enforce the law on or off the job. They patrol the areas their chief assigns them. Most importantly, they must love to help others no matter the situation. As a police officer, the job requires different relationships with people internally and externally; it may have positive and negative affects towards the various relationships that will occur in the future. A police officer has a close relationship with prosecutors, the media, the police chief, the community, and the family. Each relationship an officer interacts with works or are involved within a daily basis whether the police officer is at work or not.

At some points in our life, we are sometimes faced with challenges in which we never really know how to deal with. When it comes to people with psychological ailments, painkiller or alcohol dependences, or disorders like autism can make a police officer’s job somewhat tougher. Therefore, there must be a way to diminish the numerous accounts of harsh threats that state that multiple officers have done some bad things to the person they reprimanded. Kind of like when a “threat” to the public could either be a person who is showing a gun to the public, however to the police it could be a real situation or a less dangerous one it just depends on the capacity of the person posing the threat.

In today’s society, selective enforcement of our laws by the police and judicial system has created a discriminatory environment, where all men are not created equal. Found within our criminal justice system, freedom from crime and punishment is often bought by hiring a high-priced attorney. Over time, court cases have proven that if you have wealth, popularity or power, there is a very good chance of being absolved of your crimes, or at least receiving a greatly reduced sentence. For those who are not able to retain the best counsel due to their socioeconomic status, the courts have not been a friendly place. This discrimination also feeds into the racial profiling being used by police, where people are more likely to be arrested based on the color of their skin or gender. And finally, and perhaps the most interesting topic in today’s society, is the use of police discretion. From speed limits to drug crimes, police must decide how to use their time most wisely, and simply cannot arrest everyone, but does that make it okay? This controversy on why our police force does not treat people in society as equals, has created a division among our population, and something needs to be done to change the course of our future.

Now that we have gone through the public race perception of police, talking about the American needs; the top priorities for the police most Americans agree across racial and ethnic groups. Body cameras, 89% of Americans will support due to the positive outcome. Officers and citizens equally benefit from body cameras because it allows us to look at footage before making official statements. Public agrees that additional training is needed for police officers to deal with hostilities, there is no such thing as too much training. The one statistic that surprised me the most is that “77% support prohibiting police officers from using profanity with citizens”. Profanity is part of a ‘law enforcement/military’ language. In the world of policing I understand how it makes an officer appear unprofessional and uncontrolled. At any given time using profanity can escalate a situation and anger an individual even more. As an officer you need to know when to stay calm, the tone of voice in which you talk can spark a flame and get someone heated, facial expression and body language as well play a major factor. (Captain Christina L. Patton). There are three main reasons for the public citizen to complain, first improper police action, second unprofessional conduct and lastly, excessive force. Officers who are more often the subjects of complaints due to excessive force are usually young officers, officers who aren’t very experienced yet, males, or those with less education. All of these

We rarely go deeper into why the cops do what they do. Cops are trained to maintain social order and stay safe, but “emotional aspect of a police career is given far less, if any, attention” (Gilmartin, 2002, pp. 7-8). The struggles and stresses of the job often seep into the day-to-day lives of police officers (Gilmartin, 2002, p. 47), and eventually the nonpolice aspects of their lives are severely damaged or cease to exist (Gilmartin, 2002, pp. 69-70). This kind of stress and strain is psychologically damaging. Eventually officers “[break] or [ignore] administrative rules,” even leading to criminal violations (Gilmartin, 2002, p. 108). The question is how can we blame them? When cops must withstand constant violence and fear in the name of their job, how can their core values not be compromised, and how can they avoid losing their humanity (Gilmartin, 2002, p. 27)?

There are strong willed efforts to create and maintain a high a performing police agency in the US. However, that many people forget is that the police are human, and are working within a human built system. The law enforcement is something civilization will continuously need. Nevertheless, there is still a need to question and recreate the leadership models administered within the bounds of managing police officers. For an organization or team to sustain long-term success, ethical integrity must involve being trustful, meeting obligations, and being respectful.

Throughout the entire field of criminal justice, whether it is the police, corrections, or even the administration or courtroom setting, law enforcement officials have always had to deal with a variety of challenges. The multitude of issues that affect peace officers, in particular, are especially strenuous on individuals as well as their friends and families. It has never been a secret that police officers have a tendency to lead troubled, stress-filled lives fraught with alcohol abuse, marriage problems, and emotional imbalances. One of these issues that resonates across the public sector and throughout the media, perhaps more than it should these days, is police corruption.