The Law Enforcement Code Of Ethics

It is important that police officers be ethical especially while on the job. An officer’s

As each new member of a police department officially becomes a sworn member, friends, family and other members of the public gather as they speak an oath. The oath these officers take, promises their commitment to ensure the safety of the public they serve. This means more than protecting civilians from individuals who may stray from the law, but to also ensure the protection of basic human rights. Police and other public servants are given a great deal of trust and power, what they do with it is based on the ethics they choose to uphold. In this paper we will look at why it is important for these justice professionals to study ethics.

Over the years, the nature of policing has changed and developed drastically. Their role not only entails crime fighting and emergency response, but also social enforcement and social peacekeeping. Bound by a code of ethics, this highly demanding role asks police to remain professional in their dealings with society, and ensure they uphold the law impartially and fairly. When it comes to enforcing the law, it is important to look at the methods and approaches taken by police in order to combat crime, and whether or not they meet current ethical standards. Although this may be the case, it is also important to acknowledge that aspects of police culture such as loyalty, deception and protection of colleagues will ultimately shape the nature of approach to resolving crime, gaining helpful information and protecting fellow officers. Police officers are granted large amounts of discretion within their roles, however, when officers deliberately abuse this amount of discretion and become display misconduct, it becomes challenging to limit discretionary authority of police officers because of the frequent circumstances they encounter where deception may provide highly constructive outcomes. Throughout this essay, methods used by police officers including entrapment, wiretapping and planting of evidence will be assessed for their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the ethical standards of these methods and approaches will be assessed as to whether or not they prove as ethically

Policemen 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 do something that they know is wrong. However, they still do it because they feel no harm will come to them or they think nobody would ever find out. For instance, cheating on a test is wrong, but people do it because they think they can get away without the professor finding out.

When a law enforcement officer or other public employee is accused of potentially criminal conduct, they may face three different kinds of interviews or interrogations. If an officer is interviewed as a criminal suspect, they have the absolute right to decline to answer any questions, or to insist that they have a lawyer of their choosing to attend the interview. The first is type is during a criminal investigation; the second is during a disciplinary investigation and finally during the course of civil litigation where there has been damages. During a criminal interview, there is no professional, ethical or moral duty to participate especially without the assistance of an attorney to represent the officer under investigation. It has come to a surprise that many experienced officers will waive their right to silence and give the investigators an audio recorded statement. Some of the inexperienced criminals do not make incriminating statements. The motive for cooperation is to avoid unfavorable publicity.

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

The Criminal Justice System is just like every other agency or corporation ever. Police integrity and ethics are fundamental to effective policing and helps with building trust within communities. Sound conduct by police improves the community interactions, enhances communication, and promotes shared responsibility for addressing crime and disorder. (USDOJ, 2014) Restoring ethics starts from the beginning, and that is too look harder into the employees or officers that you are going to hire. The thing is that it is much harder than it sounds. People can change or lie on their interviews. So you will never be able to fully prevent every person who might break ethical codes from entering into law enforcement. What you need to do first is let all new officers be aware of what they are getting themselves into.

This has to be one of my favorite assignments since becoming a student at Kaplan. I have been interested in the Criminal Justice since I was a small child. I come from a long line of military, however, my passion has always been Criminal Law. I remember even as a young girl in the 2nd grand, I had dreams and aspirations of becoming a lawyer. Now that I have an ex husband, and two children of my own and find the justice system a little “Leewayish” (if that’s even a word) on dead beat fathers, my dream has now become to be a “Ball busting District Attorney for deadbeat moms and dads. I am sick and tired of

This high level outline implies the solution is straightforward and issues would be significantly reduced if police forces would follow the blueprint. So why do these problems still exist, causing major unrest in communities across our country? The handbook to success has been available for over fifteen years, yet we’ve seen little progress toward resolution. Perhaps the flaw lies in the assumption that business-like practices can modify human nature.

Police executives have always had different issues within the police department. Most police executives try to find a quick fix in order to solve the issue of police misconduct. Police misconduct is defined as inappropriate action taken by police officers in relation with their official duties (Police Misconduct Law & Legal Definition, n.d.). In order to solve this issue, one must acknowledge their different challenges, overcome the “code of silence”, and find out the role of organizational culture.

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.

The three most important Canons in the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics are... Number one, the primary responsibility of police officers is to uphold the law and respect the will of the community. (Bohm & Haley, 2012). This sums up what police are required and expected to do as a whole. As citizens, we all believe that the police will uphold the law at all cost.

With all the recent issues that are currently seeing on the news from the Travon Martin Case, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Corruption in Law Enforcement there really needs to be some policies put in place to address untruthful officers. Unfaithful Officers are a subject that has been in the news for many years and will continue to be. Being labeled as an untruthful officers is not a brand an officers would like to wear. The essay will discuss how important trust is when working in Law Enforcement, Termination or not of officers who are caught lying.

If an officer can not be trusted then the public can not trust that an officer is being honest in the way they are dealing with a certain legal matter.

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.