The Purpose of a Code of Ethics within Police Agencies
Write about its relevance to police ethics. Be thinking about identifying the major talking points about the topic that are important to review. Critically assess the literature on the subject. Do not include quotes in the work. Peer-reviewed sources used in the paper should be paraphrased, cited in proper APA format and reflect critical thinking.
The Purpose of a Code of Ethics within Police Agencies
Police ethics has been incorporated in the police operations as a professional standard to ensure that they achieve their law enforcement goals and objectives in the common good’s interest. The police ethics takes the system of moral values that are universally accepted as a professional standard in law enforcement operations. Police ethics ensure that the police do the right things characterized by courage, loyalty, honesty or allegiances (Miller, 2013). Police are the custodians of the law, and thus they need to work in adherence to the law to ensure that members of the public are sufficiently served. The police ethics are different from the rules and regulations written for the different police departments. However, ethical behavior can include the observation of the set rules, laws and regulations. The police ethics, rules, laws and regulation complement each other in meeting the different goals of maintaining law and order in society. The police are expected to maintain ethical behavior, whether they are on duty or not. The police need to maintain personal ethics in the course of their off duty operations. For instance, the police will be considered to have engaged in unethical behavior when they engage in drunk driving even when off duty. Therefore, the police need to incorporate ethics in their operations, decision-making, and police discretion to ensure that they offer the best services. The successful application of police ethics takes the incorporation ethics, rules and regulation to experience maximum benefits to both the police and the members of the public.
Principles of ethics
The police ethics are guided by principles of ethics to ensure that police abide by them in maintaining law and order. The policing principles dictate the standards of professional behaviors that the police need to maintain for the benefit of the police and members of the public. In this regard, there is the principle of accountability attached to the honesty and integrity standards of professional behavior (Payne, 2018). Police accountability requires law enforcers to take responsibility for police actions and operation by being answerable, liable and meeting the expectation in account giving. Therefore, the police can act in good faith, fairness and intellectual honesty in decision-making, taking actions and facing the consequences.
The police are required to observe the principle of fairness linked to courtesy, respect and authority to the law and the members of the public. The fairness aspect determines the good and the bad, and thus, police action under fairness needs to have fairness actions and outcomes (Payne, 2018). In fairness, the police actions, processes and consequences need to be characterized with moral rights and equity. Therefore, the police are enabled in making fair decisions in regard to their subjects.
The police need to incorporate the principle of honesty in their work, thus attaining equality and diversity standards of professional behavior. The honesty among the police enables them to always act in good faith, avoiding misleading others, avoiding deceiving or misrepresentation, overstatements, selective omission or presentation of partial truths (Payne, 2018). Therefore, the police are directed towards being consistent in presenting truth and being accurate in their operations.
The police must abide by the policing principles of integrity related to the appropriate and reasonable application of force and authority. The principle of integrity among law enforcers directs them towards understanding, accepting, and adopting to live by setting professional standards and principles such as decency, fairness, and honesty (MacVean and Neyround, 2012). Police that abide by the integrity principle are free from hypocrisy, corruption, and maintain high levels of truthfulness and honesty.
The observation of police ethics is made possible with the incorporation of leadership policing principles that determine the standards of professional behavior of issuing orders and instruction in the common good’s interest. Policing leadership principles determine the ability to the responsible distribution of responsibilities (MacVean and Neyround, 2012). Law enforcers need to practice a fair amount of autonomy in the interest of effectiveness and efficiency in police department operations. Police leaders observing leadership principles can push power downwards in the organization, thus empowering the law enforcers in lower ranks to make decisions.
The police are required to incorporate the policing principle of objectivity in their work to ensure that they observe duties and responsibilities in maintaining law and order (MacVean and Neyround, 2012). The principle of objectivity requires the police not to compromise professional judgment through bias, undue influence and conflict of interests. Objectivity ensures that external factors do not compromise the police decision making and discretion.
The principle of openness is vital in law enforcement operations as they ensure that confidentiality as a standard of professional behavior is upheld. Openness in police ensures that police departments can make policies, guidelines and processes such that police work and operations are easily and quickly implemented with great transparency (Barker, 2011). Therefore, the principle of openness ensures that police work is transparent; thus, they can incorporate public members, thus attaining a high level of cooperation and effectiveness.
The policing principles are required in law enforcement operations to ensure that fitness for work among the law enforcers is attained in the interest of public good. The policing principle of respect ensures that law enforcers are autonomous such that they can make responsible decisions in the interest of the people (Barker, 2011). Therefore, police respect makes them fit to dispense their operations with great effectiveness and efficiency.
Additionally, the police must maintain the policing principle of selflessness to maintain the standard of professional behavior and conduct in law enforcement operations. Police are required to be selfless such that they dedicate their resources, knowledge and skill to working in the best interest of the public(Barker, 2011). The selfless engagements and listening of the public members make them feel engaged and valued, thus improving police service confidence among the people.
The relevance of police ethics
The police need to subscribe to a defined code of ethics to ensure that they can deliver their different duties and responsibilities with a great level of effectiveness and efficiency. The police ethics are established under the mission statement, operating set of values, professional standards and organizational rules and regulations.
Police need to observe ethics since it has great relevance in meeting law and order operations (Turkin, 2014). In this case, police ethics are vital in enhancing leadership among the police in different leadership levels. The application of an ethical climate entails applying policies, procedures, rules and proper behavior in an organization, thus enabling top-level law enforcers to effectively manage and direct the police department or agency operations. Police departments’ values and ethics are translated into action to ensure that conflict is eliminated, thus streamlining the organizational operations. The consistency of an ethical climate gives guidance to parties to an organization such as employees. Therefore, police ethics ensures that proper leadership is used in the police agency and department, steering them in the right and successful direction.
The maintenance of ethics and values in police departments is vital to ensure effective decision-making. The decisions made among the police are effectively regulated through the adoption of appropriate values. The decisions are considered appropriate when they are made in consideration of the different ethical standards before they are implemented by the relevant parties (Turkin, 2014). Ethical standards incorporate various aspects such as laws, rules, and regulations, thus ensuring that abiding by them ensures that excellent decisions are made in the common good’s interest. For instance, incorporating honesty and accountability in decisions making among the police ensures that decisions are made responsibility and properly in regard to suspects and their victims, thus attaining a high level of confidence among the public.
Adopting ethical behavior as part of the organizational philosophy enhances public relations and upholds organizational reputation. The police ethics are directed towards meeting the needs and demands of the people. Consistence in adopting police ethics makes them a norm and a philosophy that defines the police agencies and departments (Githui, 2014). Ethics are made a norm to ensure that operations are effectively implemented in the public’s interest, thus improving the public image for the organization. The improved public relation and organizational reputation create public confidence for the police such that the police can coordinate and cooperate with the members of the public, thus making their operations much easier.
Police ethics establishes a code of ethics for the police that acts as international aid for police departments and agencies to define the police’s operation standards and expectations. The code of ethics is a fundamental foundation for the police (Githui, 2014). Countries draft national codes of ethics for their law enforcers to abide by them, thus attaining uniformity in delivering law and order operations. For instance, in most cases, countries regularly adopt a code of ethics as established under the International Association of Chief of Police as a basis for an international ethical standard. A definite ethical code of conduct establishes a firm foundation for its operations through setting or rules, laws and regulations.
Police ethics are vital in attaining civility and sanity in the police force, thus ensuring a uniform code of conduct and behaviors. It is important to note that police force members are recruited from different backgrounds and cultures (Martin, 2011). Behaviors among the officers vary the individual police officers based on their culture and personality. Some behaviors negatively affect police operations by affecting the making it impossible to attain the goals and objectives of maintaining law and order. Ethics are adopted in developing a police structure with an appropriate and uniform civility level among the officers despite their differences in background and cultures. The police departments and agencies need to enforce ethics to ensure uniform civility, thus enabling the police force to work together to meet the public needs.
Police ethics are used in judgments that are applied in to decide on the morality, thus ensuring that suspects and general citizens are handled with decorum in maintaining law and order. The police’s ethics are based upon interpersonal beliefs on aspects of life and actions considered moral or immoral behaviors depending on several societal forces (Martin, 2011). Ethics becomes the moral compass, and guidelines determine the action of the police towards the people. The ethics guide the police in observing the laws created depending on consensus, public interpretation, and interpersonal beliefs that are all considered ethical. In this case, the adoption of ethics in policing ensures that the entire criminal justice system is streamlined since the country’s laws are based on ethics; thus, they should be enforced by ethical law enforcers. For instance, ethical police will observe accountability in their law enforcement operation to ensure that they do not contradict the law.
Police ethics will be vital in eliminating racial profiling among the police in regard to handling communities and societies considered to be minorities. Police have been accused and involved in discrimination where the police view certain human characteristics as indicators of criminal behaviors (Martin, 2011). The characteristics of humans, such as their race, are used by the police to judge suspects or people across society. For instance, the police use factor of race, ethnicity, and geography, time of the day, dress and age to discriminate among the people. Discrimination is morally and legally wrong and can be effectively eliminated through the incorporation of ethics in policing. For instance, compassion, respect, discretion, integrity, accountability, respect for others, and loyalty will be vital in ensuring that the police handle all the people’s equality with no discrimination elements.
Additionally, police ethics will be vital in ensuring that general police misconducts are eliminated in the police departments and agencies. Police have consistently engaged in misconduct in their interest or through external forces. In police misconduct, police engage in inappropriate behaviors and actions in violation of law, morality and policy policies that defeating the purpose of their existence and operations (Martin, 2011). Police misconduct makes the law enforcers break their political contract and abuse their authority at the expense of the public and their interests. Some police misconduct includes police corruption, bribery, failure to report organized crimes, ticket-fixing, perjury, theft and burglary, sexual misconduct, failure to intervene, and physical assault. The use of police ethic will override the police misconduct to ensure that police act and operate most morally and legally. Therefore, police ethics will effectively eliminate police misconduct in the interest of the common good.
Conclusion
Police ethics are vital to ensuring the police act and operate while upholding high legal and moral standards. Police agencies and departments have different professionals that have the potential of violating policies, rules and regulations, thus negatively affecting police work at the expense of the public. The police ethics are attached to policing principles that make the operation of the ethics effective. The policing principles form a blueprint for the effective operation of police ethics. Police ethics are vital at streamlining the processes, operations and procedures in the police departments and agencies such that the police can effectively meet goals and objectives in maintaining law and order.
References
Barker, T. (2011). Police ethics: Crisis in law enforcement. Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Githui, D. M. (2014). An empirical study to measuring corruption and integrity in Kenyan police agency: An ethical perspective.
MacVean, A., & Neyroud, P. (2012). Police ethics and values. Learning Matters.
Martin, R. (2011). Police corruption: An analytical look into police ethics. FBI L. Enforcement Bull., 80, 11.
Miller, S. (2013). Police ethics. International Encyclopedia of Ethics, 1-8.
Payne-James, J. (2018). Confidentiality & consent in police custody: general principles. Journal of forensic and legal medicine, 57, 66-72.
Turkin, A. (2014). PROFESSIONAL POLICE ETHICS INEUROPE: VALUES AND PRINCIPLES.
