Police Ethics: Identifying Opportunities for Improvement
Many people have are afraid of the police, and some would even argue they are afraid for good reason. Indeed, sensationalized and high-profile accounts of police brutality, corruption, sex scandals, malfeasance and abuse of power in the mainstream media have fueled this mindset in recent years. Further exacerbating this negative image of law enforcement are popular views of police extortion in the form of receiving free food and beverages wherever they go, even if these are freely offered. In this environment, identifying opportunities for improving the ethical image of police officers represents a timely and valuable enterprise. To this end, this paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning police ethics and how ethical training can help achieve this goal. A summary of the research and important findings are provided in the conclusion.

eview and Discussion

For some Americans, the fear of the…...

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References

Cohne, H.S. & Feldberg, M. (1999). Power and restraint: The moral dimension of police work.

Westport, CT: Praeger.

Dickson, M.W., Smith, D.B., Grojean, M.W. & Ehrhart, M. (2001). An organizational climate regarding ethics: The outcome of leader values and the practices that reflect them.

Leadership Quarterly: Special Issue, 12, 197-217.

Police Ethics
Order #: Police ethics

Police ethics have always been a big concern in the United States and the criminal system have to deal with it on a regular basis. The law enforcement personnel have the obligation of operating in a professional and efficient manner when expressing their personal views, emotions and their duties but remain within the laid down code of ethics and a code of conduct as required.

Police ethics has an essential role within the law enforcement. The code of ethics became established in 1957 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to specifically govern its member's conduct. There were revisions that were done to the code in 1989 at the IACP conference after which reviewed and finalized by the IACP membership. The new code was adopted after a unanimous vote by IACP members in 1991.

There are set of values and norms that the citizen of America…...

Police Ethics
The research plan as outlined in the previous section is well on course and the outlined steps are relevant to the main objective of the research. There are however several challenges that are already being experienced. One of them is at section 1 where the types of sources to be used are to be identified. The difficulty is in classifying some sources like the police themselves among the sources since it may turn out at the data collection stage that the police may restrict the amount information they can give or even refuse to give information hence leaving a gap. This also may present the alteration in terms of the time schedule particularly in pursuit of primary sources of information since the few police authorities that have indicated interest in helping with crucial information often have to give a time frame for the interview and official appointment which eats…...

Police Ethics: Presentation Summary
The presentation to be delivered to my organization concerns the critical public safety issue of police ethics. The primary source for this presentation would be the data gathered from an interview with an individual working in the county sheriff's department to reinstate an internal affairs unit are a twelve year absence.

The subject of the interview would provide detailed and first-hand insight into the importance of the role played by ethics in shaping police work. In his responses, he would assert that ethical policing extends from ethical leadership. The example for fair and honest police work must start at the top of a police department and must be extended through every arm of law enforcement. The interview would reveal the internal priority of training law enforcement agents to function as role models and also to hold themselves to the same set of ethical standards that govern all of…...

Police Ethics Questionnaire
Do you believe police officers should let personal judgments or opinions enter their decision process?

Do you think profiling based on race is EVER permissible?

Is a white person loitering in a high-black area something that should be a cause for concern?

Should a black person loitering in a gated community a cause for concern?

Is a nervous Arab person boarding an airplane a concern?

Do you believe that racial profiling is a massive issue?

Do you think race-oriented groups are too sensitive to some police actions and initiatives?

Do crime statistics at all justify targeting of people based on race?

Do you agree with the use of police dogs and infrared sensors to gain warrants or probable cause to search cars or houses?

Is the scent of a drug or the sight of typically associated paraphernalia (e.g. Chore Boy, papers, etc.) enough probable cause for a search? Should it be?

Is enforcing minor laws such as skateboarding…...

Defining Police EthicsAbstractOwing to the power and authority that law enforcement officers wield, it could be argued that honesty and integrity are some of the most crucial attributes of a police officer. This is more so the case given that failure to embrace the basic tenets of ethical behavior could result in abuse of power and loss of public trust and confidence in law enforcement. Indeed, to a large extent, in the absence of ethical conduct on the part of its officers, the police force as a whole is likely to be ill-equipped to address the various challenges that bedevil the society today. It is for this reason that there is need to initiate a discussion revolving around what police ethics entail. Most specifically, in seeking to advance the ethical conduct agenda in the police force, we should ask ourselves; what exactly is police ethics? Although most police departments have…...

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References

Baumane-Vitolina, I., Cals, I. & Sumilo, E. (2016). Is Ethics Rational? Teleological, Deontological and Virtue Ethics Theories Reconciled in the Context of Traditional Economic Decision Making. Procedia Economics and Finance, 39, 108-114.

Canter, D. & Youngs, D. (2016). Crime and Society. Contemporary Social Science, 11(4), 312-318.

Dullas, A.R., Yncierto, K.D., Labiano, M.A. & Marcelo, J.C. (2021). Determinants of a Variety of Deviant Behaviors: An Analysis of Family Satisfaction, Personality Traits, and Their Relationship to Deviant Behaviors. Front Psychol, 12, 43-52.

Serpico/Blue wall of silence.
There is a need to present a complete, objective 'front' when issuing an incident report. If two officers saw the same incident the same way it will appear to be better evidence in a court of law that events transpired as they did. Also, the knowledge of having to vouch for a colleague when generating a report can encourage honesty amongst officers. On the other hand, this stress upon uniformity can have a negative effect, causing officers to turn against officers who have a legitimate grievance about the ways in which enforcement is conducted. There is a great deal of evidence that in actual practice the subculture of policing views whistleblowing as a betrayal rather than as a necessary corrective action against abuses.

There are a number of factors which can contribute to the creation of such a blue wall of silence, first and foremost the fear…...

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References

Driver, J. (2009). The history of utilitarianism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Retrieved from:

 http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2009/entries/utilitarianism-history 

Jones, J.R. & Carlson, D.P. (2004). Reputable conduct: Ethical issues in policing and corrections (2nd ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Law Enforcement Areas of Interest
Law Enforcement Moral Code of Ethics:

Although various police departments have individual rules and morals based upon the community in which they live, there are universal morals and ethics which police officers must be held up to. There are always unwritten or unspoken laws of morals and ethics regardless of the society in question. Members of law enforcement are tasked with protection of the innocent and in finding out which members of the society have broken laws in order to punish them appropriately for their actions (International 2013). Because of the high station they fulfill in the community, police officers must possess high moral character and behave in the most ethical manner that is possible. Both on-duty and off-duty officers must conform to the highest moral standards, thereby ensuring that they will be unable to be touched by scandals such as bribery or other means of coercion.…...

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Works Cited

Gallagher, C., Maguire, E.R., Mastrofski, S.D., & Reisig, M.D. (2001, Oct). The public image of police. International Association of Chiefs of Police. IACP: Alexandria, VA.

Geller, W. & Toch, H. (1996). Police Violence: Understanding and Controlling Police Abuse of Force. Yale UP.

International Association of Chiefs of Police. (2013). Model policy on standards of conduct.

IACP: Alexandria, VA.

Philosophy Police Ethics
Learning Police Ethics

Learning police ethics and responsible behavior on the job are important functions of a police professional's duty. By definition, police officers have sworn to protect and serve the community. However, if they act unethically at any time then they could do harm to the community as opposed to help support it. Deviant behaviors among the police force can do significant harm to the reputation of the force as well as make the job of the police to serve the public more complicated as well as more difficult to accomplish. This analysis will look at some of the ethical standards that are expected of this profession as well as the importance of learning the correct ways of behaving in this role.

Ethics Standards in Policing

hen policing came to the United States, there was little concern among police officers about adhering to legal norms, despite their formal policing role…...

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Works Cited

Banks, E. "Ethics and the Police." 1 July 2008. Sage Pub. Online. 1 April 2013.

IACP. "Ethics Training in Law Enforcement." N.d. International Association of Police Chiefs. Online. 2 April 2013.

O'Donnell, E. "Fostering Ethical and Humane Policing." 13 April 2011. IIP Digital. Online. 2 April 2013.

U.S. Department of State. "Ethics and Effective Policing." April 2011. U.S. Department of State. Online. 2 April 2013.

but, ultimately, police officers should not be making selective judgments about the relative quality of the people they arrest (Fuller, 2001). They have a moral obligation to enforce the law fairly and consistently. If police officers were allowed to make such selective judgments, perhaps they would never arrest a mother, for fear she would lose her children, or a religious figure, for fear of its impact on the community. Such a policy potentially would put certain classes of people above the law. As a result, we can conclude that the Rampart police officers who covered up their colleagues crimes committed a serious ethical breech.
As with the case of Officer Malone in the Untouchables, the Rampart investigation revealed that ethics can be an amorphous thing, bent and shaped by police officers to defend questionable actions. but, ultimately, the high moral standard to which we hold police officers must preclude such…...

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Works Cited

"Canons of Police Ethics" (No date). Retrieved March 25, 2007, at http://ethics.iit.edu/codes/coe/int.assoc.chiefs.police.canons.html.

De Palma, B. (Director). (1987). The Untouchables [Film]. [With Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, & Sean Connery]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Fuller, John (2001). "Street Cop Ethics." The Law Enforcement Trainer. Retrieved March 25, 2007, at http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/ethics/street_cop.html.

"LA to pay $70m in police corruption cases" (2005, April 1). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 25, 2007, at  http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/04/01/la_to_pay_70m_in_police_corruption_cases .

Introduction As law enforcers, police officials are in a position to engage in decision- making capable of impacting people’s lives, possessions and freedom, and ethics- related knowledge would ensure they decide appropriately. Policepersons are responsible for enforcing the law and familiarity with ethics would ensure they do so impartially and with integrity. In this paper, ethical code is applied to the incident of police brutality at the time of Hurricane Katrina, on 4th September, 2005. Six civilians making their way across New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge were shot at by policepersons, with two losing their lives and the rest suffering from serious injury.
Code of ethics and the case study
Policepersons playing the role of law enforcers are chiefly responsible to serve humanity through defending their lives and possessions, upholding citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom, fairness and equality, and ensuring innocents are defrauded, the peaceful don’t suffer aggression and chaos, and the weak…...

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References

Westmarland, L. (2005). Police ethics and integrity: Breaking the blue code of silence. Policing and Society, 15(2), 145-165.

 

What contributes to unethical conduct? Introduction
Clark was the victim of a gunshot that hit him while at the backyard of his grandparents’ house. The event took place on the 18th of March. According to information from the Sacramento police the responsible officers were answering an emergency 911 call with information that a man had broken the window to a car in the area. The shooting and subsequent death of Clark is just one in a series of police shootings targeted at black men in recent times. The fatal force data suggests that 264 individuals have suffered the same fate as Clark since 2018 in the hands of police officers (Washington Post’s, 2018). Of the 264 fatalities, 57 of them were revealed to be black from the news reports. According to research there are evident racial disparities advanced by the police department in their use of force. Although most of these cases…...

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References

Barker, T. (2011). Police ethics: Crisis in law enforcement. Charles C Thomas Publisher.

Lockhart, P.R. (Updated Mar 30, 2018). Police shot and killed an unarmed black man in his own backyard. All he was holding was a cellphone. Vox. Retrieved from on 19 September 2018

The Washington Post, (last updated 2018, Aug. 30). Fatal Force. Accessed from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fdc0245259d6 on 18 September 2018

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/21/17149092/stephon-clark-police-shooting-sacramento

Ethics, Terrorism, & the Future of Policing
The devastating attacks on United States soil that took place on September 11, 2001, became the turning point for all police activity. The police mission went from protecting people against day-to-day violence, to protecting a society from foreign attack. Terrorism is defined as "the systematic use of terror [fear] especially as a means of coercion" (merriam-webster.com). It was this idea that something that could not be fully understood, such as a terrorist attack, could indeed cause so many people to be afraid. However, this changed what it meant to be in law enforcement. Despite problems that do exist on a local level, the focus has shifted from making sure that any threat of a potential attack could be prevented. Personal liberties have been violated, discriminatory profiling has risen, and corruption within police force has elevated -- all in the name of terrorism prevention.

The concept…...

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References:

Baker, Al. (2012) Independent agency gets new powers to prosecute New York police officers. Retrieved from  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/nyregion/civilian-complaint-review-board-gets-new-powers-to-prosecute-new-york-police.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=police%20abuse%20of%20power&st=cse 

Foster, C., Cordner, G., Frakes, K., Collins, P., & Mayberry, L. National Institute of Justice, (2005).The impact of terrorism on state law enforcement. Retrieved from The council of State Governments and Eastern Kentucky University website:  http://www.csg.org/knowledgecenter/docs/Misc0504Terrorism.pdf 

Nalle, D. (2011). Repeal or revise. Retrieved from  http://www.rlc.org/2011/01/31/repeal-or-revise-the-problems-with-the-patriot-act/ 

Rayman, G. (2010). New york's finest cover-up. Retrieved from http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-10-13/news/nypd-cover-up-cabbie/

Police, Terrorism, Ethics, And Corruption
The traditional mission of police forces in the United States is fighting criminality and upholding the law in the defined geographical area or boundary they belong to. This translates to the local police forces of towns, municipalities and cities engaging in policing activities in these respective areas. Outside of these boundaries, the state police forces have responsibilities and on the national level, the Federal ureau of Investigation (FI) has jurisdiction. Prior to the onset of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the American homeland, the mission and boundaries of the aforementioned police forces are clear and distinct. Immediately thereafter, there has been a tremendous paradigm shift in the mission of police forces in the United States because the growing threats of terrorism and terrorist activities have entered into the very heart of the nation. Even several years after the 9/11 attacks, terrorists have taken liberties…...

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Bibliography:

Caldero, M.A. & Crank, J.P. (2011). Police ethics: The corruption of noble cause. Burlington, MA: Anderson Publishing.

Terwilliger, G.J., Cooperstein, S.G., Blumenthal, D., & Parker, R. (2005, February 15). The war on terrorism: Law enforcement or national security? Retrieved April 27, 2011 from  http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/the-war-on-terrorism-law-enforcement-or-national-security

Ethics in Law Enforcement
Ethics are what almost anyone would define as a person's determination between what is good or bad, or more accurately what is right or wrong. Although many of these attitudes can be a product of parenting or other factors in one's maturing environment, ethical decisions could also be a product of environmental factors that are outside of the control of individuals. It is difficult to determine where a person's ethical code, but some professions demand an ethic that is not needed elsewhere.

One such profession is law enforcement. Officers of the law are called upon to "stand in "harm's way" not so much against enemies with bullets, but against enemies skilled in every form of trickery, deceit, feigned ignorance, and deception" (Stevens, 2005). Because of the environment that they must exist in, police officers are constantly deciding whether to make the right decision or take the wrong course.…...

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References

Gilmartin, K.M., & Harris, J.J. (1998). Law enforcement ethics: The continuum of compromise. Retrieved November 24, 2010 from  http://emotionalsurvival.com/law_enforcement_ethics.htm 

Russell, B. (1910). Determinism and morals. From The Elements of Ethics. Retrieved November 26, 2010 from ethics/section-ivhttp://fair-use.org/bertrand-russell/the-elements-of-

Sanford, DH (2010). Indeterminism: Causation and conditionals, ethics and history of philosophy, primer on determinism. Retrieved November 24, 2010 from  http://science.jrank.org/pages/22033/indeterminism.html#ixzz16cFBtAvu 

Stevens, M. (2005). Police deviance and ethics. Retrieved November 24, 2010 from http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mstevens/205/205lect11.htm