Police Ethics
Instructions
Use the internet to locate an article where a police officer violated ethical law enforcement behaviors such as unethical practices against police procedures, use of force, or investigative protocols.
Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you address the following:
- Describe the role and value of ethics in policing.
- Identify the punishment or consequences of the unethical police practices.
- What key points did you take from the Police Ethics Discussion with your collaborative group this week?
- What methods or training are in place or should be created to prevent the unethical behavior from occurring again?
- Format your paper in accordance with APA guidelines
Sample Solution
Value of Ethics
For this discussion, I choose the case of “Kalvin Michael Smith” to study ethics in the police. The role of ethics is important to a police officer, who must react rapidly to criminal action, settle on life and death decisions and get right lawful evidence. For example, without the legal and moral organization of rights, illuminating and a guilty party of his entitlement to a lawyer and telling him that anything he says can utilize against him, an assailant’s confession won’t hold up in court. It is unethical for a police officer to threaten assault and force an offender to confess his crime.
A cop has a moral duty to make non-one-sided, nonprejudicial, important and reasonable careful decisions to ensure innocent people. Various ethical issues and predicament found in policing. Police officers do take part in unethical behavior which regularly begins from the standards of the authoritative culture. Although, the working in the realm of policing provides officers with the capacity to defend pardon and justify unethical behavior while keeping up an ethical self-view. [Rob152]
Consequences
When a Police Officer abuses his power, it is called unethical police practices. “Police” offense is a broad term used to portray police disgrace and severity, which integrate violation of state and government laws, the infringement of a person’s established rights. Excessive power, false imprisons, and detainment, serious allegation, and wrongful passing are additionally used to characterize unethical police practices. There are many consequences for the police officers regarding the use of their power against resistive subjects. [ill15]
There are mainly five charges a police officer can face for violating its ethics. First one is “Federal criminal charges” in which the fines can be as high as $250,000. Second is “state criminal charges” which are the separate state correctional codes that implement: assault, homicide, and so forth and punishment for these are a prison. “Federal civil charges” is the third consequences a police officer can compel to pay his adversary’s lawyer charges. So regardless of the possibility that the compensatory harms are moderately little, the legitimate expenses the offended party has brought about can be vast. [ncs15]
Next is “State civil charges” as in government court, the legal implications are financial. Be that as it may, not at all like in state courts, the jury pool will comprise of nearby nationals, so how the group sees a police officer will assume an extensive part by the way his activities seen. Juries are just human, and much of the time it relies upon how they consider and see their officers. Last is “Departmental charges” here, contingent upon how the organization works or potentially how union contract is set up, a police officer can be fined, suspended, downgraded or even let go for his activities in the city or the correctional facility. Charges will be that he abused at least one of his organization’s rules, controls, strategies or methodology.
Police Ethics Discussion
In this discussion, I get to know that there are various standards of ethics in police training. Learning is not a one-time occasion. It is a consistent procedure of survey. In this manner, morals preparing should proceed all through an officer’s vocation. This planning should be both formal and showed in a composed association, and furthermore calmly presented in settings, for instance, briefings and gathering social events.
Despite participating in the ethics getting ready got by those at the officer rank, first line chiefs and focus organization should in like manner get planning for the examination of good breaks. Regardless, no measure of getting ready is satisfactory if office expert fails to set an “ethical organization” case. The upper organization needs to fathom the effects they have on those in their request through the decisions they make. Decisions, for instance, system change, educate, and progressions must introduce a “just culture” inside the affiliation.
Training To Prevent Unethical Behavior
There are a few approaches to prevent unethical behavior in the case of police officers, including the arrangement of the commission that will handle the issue of mixed up distinguishing proof, untrustworthy conduct and unfortunate behavior in the Criminal justice field; to apply the whistleblowing practice; and to create powerful hostile to defilement strategy. Training in the methodology based approach was compelling in enhancing the basic leadership skill of officers. The program was found to have a positive effect on both the ethical substance and handling of choices by the officers in the treatment gathering. Extremely, officers in the treatment aggregate were more ready to apply an organized critical thinking process after the preparation contrasted with their partners. However, they just tended to adjust distinctive good esteems in ‘higher stakes’ of ethical dilemmas.
To eradicate a large number of the moral situations confronted by cops, authority must be benefit focused. The effect of human factors on singular execution must concur with opportune and reasonable train — both in a positive and a negative sense. Officers must contact all individuals from the group and, while remembering that there will dependably be a political segment to working a police division, the initiative must influence it to clear that they additionally serve another body electorate that is, the sworn officers themselves. [Dou12]
References
Douglas W. Perez, J. A. (2012). Police Ethics. Cengage Learning.
illinois. (2015). Law Enforcement: Do their punishments fit their crimes?. Retrieved from illinois: https://publish.illinois.edu/sswpolicy/2015/10/05/law-enforcement-do-their-punishments-fit-their-crimes/
Klitzman, R. (2015). The Ethics Police?: The Struggle to Make Human Research Safe. Oxford University Press.
ncsl. (2015). PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF STATE ETHICS AND PUBLIC CORRUPTION LAWS. Retrieved from ncsl: http://www.ncsl.org/research/ethics/50-state-chart- criminal-penalties-for-public-corr.aspx
