The Oath of Office and Code of Ethics Essay

Crime, deviance, and unethical conduct can found within almost every occupation and profession. Police ethics is the conduct that everyone is most concerned with. Police officers enter into an occupation that shares many characteristics of other career fields, but it also has unique responsibilities that deal with conduct and behavior. The PBS documentary: The Central Park Five, demonstrates two of the most common misconduct issues that the criminal justice professionals deal with noble cause and noble cause corruption. The film investigates the miscarriage of justice of four Black and one Latino teenager from Harlem, who were wrongly convicted of the brutal beating and rape of a white woman in New York City's Central Park.

Criminal justice practitioners are necessary for a civilized society. Without those who form boundaries to our freedom, and the ones that reinforce those laws, our community would be chaos. Some of the main social issues our society faces are drug abuse, gang violence, child abuse, and terrorism. The criminal justice practitioners face these types of issues daily. These professionals must act on the morals and laws stated by society rather than their own opinions, sometimes facing hard decisions. The criminal justice field is always active and busy, dealing with countless amount of criminal activity throughout the country.

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.

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.

When an individual chooses a career in law enforcement they realize it can be a very rewarding, yet dangerous career path to take. Most people often hear about all the potential dangers such as officer involved shootings and physical confrontations before making the choice to join the ranks of the few who will always stand for what is right. However, today there is a new danger to law enforcement known as the mass media which adds a whole new realm of difficulty to an already taxing job. The negative effects of the media can be felt nationwide by law enforcement agencies and these effects include creating a divided community, unrealistic expectations, and the devastation of current and future law enforcement careers. This presentation

Within the past few years the criminal justice profession has been looked at in a negative view. Individuals do not like to contact them as they think it will do more harm then good. Police officers are not looked to as if they serve and protect the community, the court systems are either not giving enough of a punishment or giving too much and children are being placed in homes that are much worse then the one they were pulled from. I have heard on multiple occassions how the criminal justice system has

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

New officers need to know that no profession demands a higher ethical standard than law enforcement. Whether or not there are other careers that require a similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is a tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers. Every officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a fishbowl. Friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers watch every move law enforcement officers make, both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because they are cynical or hope to catch them screwing up or because they are hopeful

Law enforcement (police) subcultures have specific set of moral values and a certain mentality exhibited by those in law enforcement. It’s always the public against the police so they form an alliance for supportive reasons. However, people may believe police subculture is breaking down. Police subculture is breaking down because it is inconsistent with the formal morals and values related to the culture and that police are not the same as each other in their qualities and attributes. Examining ethics and its relation to the police subculture is important to help delineate not only the grey area of ethics but also the grey area within which the police operate (McCartney and Parent, 2015). For example, police officers are known to defend their own whether its something right or wrong. However, if another officer feels that the situation interferes with their morals, then it becomes inconsistent with the other officer’s

Police officers take an oath called, The Law Enforcement Oath of Honor: "On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the constitution, my community, and the agency I serve."

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 in policing have been a concern and focus area for improvement for generations and yet to this day unethical police conduct is a problem, not only in the United States but inside every society. Just two decades ago leading experts were describing police misconduct as an all pervasive and ongoing problem that encroaches on various forms of bribery, corruption, discrimination, neglect, and excessive abuses of force, as well as many other forms of unconventional actions. If anything, public concern about certain forms of police misconduct in America has since increased perhaps especially with respect to the mistreatment of minorities in general and African Americans in particular (Rosenthal, 2016). Concern has grown in recent years, with

“On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the constitution my community and the agency I serve.” That is the oath that every police officer in the country are sworn to, upon officially receiving their badge of office. This is a contract of honor and dignity, a binding document that assures their remembrance and devotion to ethics and purpose. It is an affidavit, the document one signs under oath, swearing honesty and integrity. It is well known that intentional fabrication of a testimony can and should be considered perjury. Even unintentional inaccuracy can massively effect not only a case, but the person being charged. This felony may result in fining and up to five years in prison; penalties that may increase with the severity and obstruction by the offense. When a police officer neglects or disregards their Oath of Honor, violates their binding contract, is that not of the same crime?

The U.S. State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Census of 2008 reported that there is 17,985 state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States. While we have one of the largest criminal justice system, it most definitely comes with much corruption. In the text that we are reading in class, complex internal constituency prompted a high curiosity on just how much corruption is there. The Criminal Justice System has very strict policies but nothing is more true than to say that within that organization is a bigger gang. Through this study, I realized that although governmental policies, cultural and politics are unlike in different places and countries there is a profound similarity on the ethics of criminal justice. We all have a specific acknowledgment on what behavior is acceptable and what is not in the PD, more so and even more important is how these polices are represented by administrators. Having a clear understanding and following of those rules and regulations, is one of the most important forms of communication for a successful

Many law enforcement officers in the United States are good, dedicated and committed to serving the people by protecting them and their property. In most cases, however, we hear news of police officer involvement in criminal activities or unethical behavior such as theft, robbery, abuse of authority and excessive coercion. The indication of police using force against suspects and committing crimes does not appear favorable to the public because people have entrusted them for their protection. Therefore, to address and effectively reduce crime, practitioners in the criminal justice system at the federal, state, and local levels must maintain high ethical standards in their practice. To